Gold returned as a hot asset in August, with crypto traders shifting into tokenized gold and perpetual futures as an inflation hedge and speculative play. Tether’s XAUT remains the leader of the on-chain gold trend, with trading volumes near their peak for 2026 and a total value of $3.15 billion as of September 2026.
Another $59 million flowed into Tether’s tokenized gold as of September 4, while XAUT traded around $4,474.72 after recently reaching the $4,600 range. Around $2.39 million in XAUT is trading on Uniswap V3, reflecting rising decentralized exchange activity. XAUT and PAXG are the most widely traded gold-backed tokens on decentralized markets, according to Dune Analytics.
Gold also regained strength in perpetual futures markets. Open interest returned to $750 million, with $299 million in daily trading. Most whale positions are on the long side, and the largest whale holds more than $273,000 in unrealized gains. By contrast, the largest short position had unrealized losses of $2.2 million as of September 4.
Additional demand came from a whale wallet identified with high probability as belonging to the Antalpha AI agent. Over the past month, the AI agent accumulated several tranches of 1,000 XAUT while gold traded closer to $4,000 per ounce. As of September 4, the agent held 16,120 XAUT valued at over $71 million. Another Antalpha wallet holds more than 33,000 XAUT tokens. The AI agent actively trades XAUT, often sending funds to Bitfinex, and some holdings have been sent to a Cobo.com custody wallet.
Overall, XAUT increased its total holder count to 84,756 wallets, up by more than 16 percent in the last 30 days. Over $4.6 billion in value was moved through XAUT in August, with more than 53,000 active addresses. Most XAUT tokens remain on Ethereum, although supply on BNB Chain and Monad increased in the past month, potentially signaling new use cases.
