Whales ignore the 20% drop in gold and instead accumulate over $12.3 million in XAUT.

The spot price of gold has significantly corrected from its January high of $5,589, falling to $4,447 per ounce as of March 27, representing a decline of over 20% in less than two months. However, on-chain data shows that large cryptocurrency wallets are accumulating Tether Gold (XAUT) tokens against the trend during the gold correction—two whale wallets withdrew a total of over $12.3 million in tokenized gold from exchanges in a single day.

Behind the Gold Plunge: Triple Pressure from Strong Dollar, High Yields, and Leverage Liquidation

(Source: Trading View)

This round of gold price decline has been driven by multiple macro factors. The strengthening dollar has increased the relative holding costs of gold, while U.S. Treasury yields have risen to 4.40%, directly compressing the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets, and leveraged long positions in the futures market have been forced to liquidate, further magnifying the decline. Institutional investors have also engaged in portfolio rebalancing and profit-taking after gold prices surged over 64% in 2025, contributing to ongoing selling pressure.

Despite this, JPMorgan maintains its target price for gold at $6,300 per ounce for 2026, and Global X ETFs investment strategist Justin Lin also upholds a year-end outlook of $6,000, indicating that institutional views on the medium to long-term trend of gold prices have not changed due to this correction.

On-Chain Whale Movements: Two Withdrawals Totaling $12.3 Million Confirm Accumulation Trend

(Source: Arkham)

Blockchain analysis platform Lookonchain detected two large XAUT withdrawal records on March 27:

Wallet 0x5b1d: Approximately 8 hours before this post was published, withdrew 2,000 XAUT from an exchange, valued at about $8.78 million

Wallet 0x49dd: Approximately 15 hours ago, withdrew 800 XAUT from OKX, valued at about $3.55 million

Total: The two wallets transferred a total of 2,800 XAUT (over $12.3 million) to self-custody wallets

From the standard interpretation of on-chain behavior, transferring assets from centralized exchanges to self-custody wallets is typically viewed by analysts as a major signal of accumulation, as such actions directly reduce the available circulating supply of tokens in the trading market rather than increasing selling pressure.

XAUT Market Position and BNB Chain Expansion

Each XAUT represents one ounce of physical gold stored in Swiss vaults (London Good Delivery bars), executing a 1:1 gold reserve, regularly audited by independent agencies. The issuer, TG Commodities, holds a stablecoin license issued under El Salvador’s Digital Assets Issuance Law, with reserve details available at gold.tether.to.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated at the launch announcement on BNB Chain: “With XAUT, we have not changed the essence of gold; we have merely enabled it to be transferred instantly, settled globally, and seamlessly integrated with digital markets.”

Currently, XAUT operates natively on over 12 blockchains through the USDt0 cross-chain infrastructure layer. Nina Rong, Executive Director of Growth at BNB Chain, noted that the launch of XAUT has propelled BNB Chain to become the second-largest RWA ecosystem by TVL. XAUT currently has a market capitalization of approximately $2.5 billion, with a 24-hour trading volume of $849 million (CoinGecko data), holding about 60% market share in the tokenized gold market, which is expected to grow to over $4 billion by 2025.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the relationship between XAUT and physical gold?

Each XAUT token corresponds to one ounce of physical gold stored in Swiss vaults, executing a 1:1 gold reserve and undergoing regular independent audits. Its core advantage lies in combining the value storage properties of gold with the instant cross-chain transfer and liquidity of blockchain.

What does the behavior of whales withdrawing XAUT during the gold correction mean?

Transferring XAUT from exchanges to self-custody wallets is typically interpreted by market analysts as an accumulation signal, as this action reduces the circulating supply of tokens in trading markets, reflecting holders’ inclination towards long-term positions rather than selling intentions.

What is XAUT’s position in the tokenized gold market?

XAUT currently accounts for about 60% of the total supply of gold-backed tokens, with a market capitalization of approximately $2.5 billion and a circulating supply of about 560,000 tokens, making it the largest tokenized gold product by market cap. By 2025, the entire gold-backed stablecoin market is expected to grow from about $1.3 billion to over $4 billion.