Trends
Rise of Tokenized Gold
There's a shiny new trend in crypto. And yes, I meant that literally. Gold is shining in crypto.
- Last week, the trading volume of tokenized gold crossed $1 Billion. That's a 2-year high.
- According to Coingecko, the total market cap of tokenized Gold has crossed $2 Billion. That's a new record.
- Since Trump's inauguration, Tokenized Gold has been the most growing sector. It's MC went up 21% while stablecoins only went up 8%. The total crypto MC had fallen 26% during the same period.
Why the Gold Rush?
In the traditional markets, investors usually buy gold during market uncertainty. The same trend is happening in crypto.
Trump's tariff policies have created massive uncertainty in the market. So yesterday, gold reached a new all-time high of $3,241 USD/oz. This increase in Gold price directly pumps the volume and market cap
We saw this same pattern during the 2023 banking crisis. Silicon Valley Bank was collapsing, Silvergate was liquidated, and Signature Bank was shutting down. Amid that chaos, tokenized gold volumes also soared past $1 billion in a single week.
So maybe this isn't a one-off. Maybe it's the start of something bigger.
Why Tokenized Gold Could Stick Around
Crypto-native investors might prefer tokenized gold. And as more people enter crypto, they'll prefer tokenized gold over physical one as well.
The thesis makes sense. If the issuer is trustworthy, tokenized gold is just a much better product.
- There's no need to secure the gold yourself.
- You can use it in DeFi. Borrow stables against it. Lend it to earn yield. And so on.
And don't forget: gold has been a store of value long before the U.S. dollar existed. That's a powerful narrative. If stablecoins backed by dollars took off… why not tokenized gold?
That said, gold has its limits. It's not used for everyday payments, and unlike USD, it doesn't have native yield (like Treasury bills).
So, don't expect it to replace stablecoins—but it could still carve out a nice niche of its own.
Which are the top projects?
When it comes to real-world assets (RWAs), trust is everything. You're counting on someone to hold that gold on your behalf. That's why the top projects are backed by names with credibility.
The two major players?
- Tether Gold (XAUT)
- Paxos Gold (PAXG)
Both soared in the past week and for good reason—Tether and Paxos are two of the most trusted firms in crypto when it comes to offchain-asset-backed tokens.
Two other projects are Quorium and Kinesis Gold. Their market caps are much lower, and they don't have the same level of trust as the top two. But they're still worth watching.
Want to explore the full list? You can see a long list on Coingecko. Just don't expect to find any great investment tokens (yet). Most of these projects don't have tokens you can actually invest in.
But hey, remember how stablecoins started? In the early days, they didn't have investable tokens either. And look where that niche is now.
So don't sleep on this trend. Keep it on your radar.
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Enters csUSDL x Gearbox. The deal lets you open a leverage position with csUSDL on Gearbox, with a fixed 5% SHIFT APR per loop.
How to open the position?
- Go to the csUSDL strategy on Gearbox.
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- Done!
This strategy's liquidation threshold is 96.5%, and the default LTV is 90% to minimize liquidation risks.
Withdraw anytime, but the fixed APR only kicks in if you stay 90 days.
Demand is ramping up fast. Once USDT and USDC pools hit capacity, you're out.
News
The Mantra Meltdown: Red Flags, Dumping, and Denials
Another week, another multi-billion-dollar wipeout.
Mantra — a Layer 1 blockchain focused on Real World Assets (RWAs) — just pulled a full-blown Luna 2.0. It crashed >90% in ~4 hours. It's MC went from ~$6B to ~485M.
Let's unpack this mess.
What caused the crash?
Onchain data and Arkham Intelligence tell a story.
Since Apr 7, 43.6M $OM ($227M at the time) was deposited into exchanges. This was 4.5% of the circulating supply — more than enough to trigger a massive dump.
Naturally, this led to cascading liquidations. The classic domino effect in crypto.
On X, rumors suggested that the team and market makers were artificially pumping prices. And this massive crash was the team offloading their tokens.
At least 17 wallets moved $OM to CEXes. Arkham had linked 2 of the wallets that dumped OM to Laser Digital, a strategic investor in Mantra.
ZachXBT also highlighted two individuals: Denko (Reef Finance founder) and Fukogoryushu. Apparently, they were looking to borrow against their $OM stash. Maybe liquidation of their possible $OM collateral might have been the catalyst that broke the dam.
But of course, the Mantra team has their own version of the story.
What is the Mantra team saying?
Laser Digital, the strategic investor Arkham linked to dumping, denies selling OM. They claimed Arkham mislabeled the wallets.
Meanwhile, Mantra's founder John Mullin pointed fingers at exchanges. Apparently, CEXes recklessly closed the OM positions during the low-liquidity period. He even suggested that some CEXes might've been shorting Mantra at the same time.
We don't know exactly who those shady wallets belong to. We don't know if the team sold.
But we do know that someone — or several someones — dumped a massive stash. And it's hard to imagine all of this happening without at least a few insiders being involved.
At the end of the day, for us as investors, the question isn't who sold. It's: Could we have seen this coming?
The Red Flags Were Everywhere
If you were doing even a basic level of research, the signs were flashing bright red:
- They doubled the token supply recently.
- The market cap was ~$6B, but its TVL was only $4m.
- RioDeFi created Mantra DAO in 2021. And they even ended up in court over some dispute.
- It was launched on Polkastarter. Apparently, Polkastarter was known to launch a lot of rugs.
- According to some sleuths, nearly ~90% of the $OM circulating supply was controlled by the team. (The team denies it. But onchain evidence suggests otherwise.)
- Their behavior around $OM airdrop was suspicious. Delays. Excluded wallets. No transparency. And more.
- And if you were tracking wallet flows, you would've clearly seen the massive outflows to exchanges days before the dump.
If you're a regular reader of this newsletter, then yeah — you could have avoided this project.
You'd have looked at the fundamentals. Checked on-chain. Compared market cap vs TVL. And maybe, just maybe, asked why a supposedly legit project had a history full of lawsuits, shady tokenomics, and questionable insider activity.
Stay sharp out there. The next "Mantra" is always around the corner.
🚀 DeFi Catalysts
Mode Network launched Mode Trade. It's an AI-powered perp exchange built directly into their L2.
K3 Capital is deploying a Gearbox instance. It'll be fully operated and governed by K3, from risk curation to market management.
Pump.fun reopened their live streaming feature to everyone. And they've created a more detailed moderation policy.
Virtuals Protocol introduced the "Genisis Launch" mechanism for AI Agents. It can provide the broadest possible holder base from Day 1.
Rath Finance introduced itself as the "universal rails" for DeFi yield. With it, any interface can embed yield directly into their UX.
Cosmos released IBC Eureka. It makes user and asset onboarding from Ethereum and Cosmos seamless, as users can transfer assets with just 1 click.
📰 Industry News
Donald Trump has signed a congressional resolution that eliminates an IRS rule that would have blocked innovation among DeFi projects.
Visa is joining the Global Dollar Network, a stablecoin consortium led by Paxos, Robinhood, Kraken, and Galaxy Digital.
Vitalik shared a roadmap for Ethereum's privacy goal. It doesn't lead to 100% privacy, but it will provide a greater guarantee of privacy.
Paul Atkins is confirmed as the SEC chair under President Trump. He's an SEC veteran who's known to be pro-crypto.
🐦⬛ X Hits
- State of AI Agent narrative.
- 10 innovative DeFi protocols.
- How to farm the HyperLiquid ecosystem?
- Bigcoin explainer. It's ponzi-ish game on Abstract.
- ChatGPT review of the last 18 months of Arthur Hayes's posts.
😂 Meme
Until next time,
Edgy
p.s.
Here are some that I like:
• BTC obviously
• Solana
• Fluid
• TAO
• Pendle
• Mantle
• Hype
Today's email was written by Edgy and Yayya.
DISCLAIMER: I'm NOT a financial advisor. This content is for education and information purposes only. Crypto and DeFi are risky and speculative. Please do your research before investing.
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