The tokenised commodities market has grown to $6.4 billion as of January 2025, up from $1.1 billion, a 518% year-over-year increase. Gold-led tokens account for roughly 95% of the market, led primarily by PAXG (~$2.4B) and XAUT (~$3.7B). Ethereum dominates tokenised commodity issuance, representing about 75%, with XRPLedger at roughly 15%. Not all commodities behave the same; tokenised silver, copper, uranium, and oil remain niche relative to gold.
From these specificities, three categories emerge. Gold and silver fall into the first category, with gold being the clearest monetary commodity. Above-ground stock vastly exceeds annual mine supply, and price discovery is continuous with mature custody infrastructure globally. Silver shares similar properties but with more cyclical demand, yet remains suitable for on-chain representation.
Uranium is the clearest example of the second category, with supply geographically concentrated and politically sensitive; retail ownership of physical uranium is practically impossible, and exposure occurs mainly through specialised funds or mining equities. Unlike gold, uranium does not function as collateral, so tokenisation expands access rather than improving settlement efficiency, with adoption likely institutional and permissioned. Oil and copper belong to the third category, where futures markets dominate price discovery and exposure is synthetic via futures and swaps, with on-chain representation more likely to emerge via perpetuals, synthetic indices, or structured exposure rather than warehouse-backed tokens. Blockchain infrastructure has matured, delivering institutional-grade custody, compliance tooling and liquidity venues; Ethereum accounts for approximately 75% of tokenised commodity issuance, with XRPLedger at roughly 15%.
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