Gold has been a tremendous performer this year. During its 2025 rally, the gold price has broken the $3,000 and $4,000 milestones for the first time in history.

The precious metal is up roughly 60% since January 1, 2025. 

Gold vs. Bitcoin

Bitcoin, which many argue is gold’s digital counterpart, hasn’t been doing so hot. In the same time frame, the price of the largest cryptocurrency declined by 5%. 

In light of this, it’s quite ironic that the very technology Bitcoin pioneered is now being used to make investment exposure to gold more accessible than ever.

What is Tether Gold (XAUT)?

Gold-backed crypto tokens like Tether Gold (XAUT) allow anyone across the globe to instantly add gold to their portfolio (with some caveats that we’ll explain later).

XAUT is a gold-backed token issued by Tether, which also issues the world’s largest stablecoin, USDT. Conceptually, XAUT is similar to the dollar-pegged stablecoins crypto investors are already closely familiar with. Each XAUT token in circulation is backed by one fine troy ounce of gold held by Tether. 

XAUT is available as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain, and can be bought on a variety of centralized exchanges and DEXes. 

The tokens can be directly redeemed for physical gold, but this is only relevant for a small number of investors in practice. This is because you need to have 1 gold bar’s worth of XAUT tokens to redeem your tokens directly for physical gold. Tether says clients who want to redeem for physical gold should deposit at least 430 XAUT ($1.8 million at current prices). 

Tether launched XAUT in 2020, shortly after Paxos launched PAXG in September 2019. At the time of writing, XAUT tokenizes roughly $2.1 billion worth of gold. The second-largest gold-backed token, PAXG, is not too far behind with a market cap of $1.4 billion. 

It’s worth highlighting that Tether is among the 30 largest gold holders in the world, and owns roughly 116 tons of the precious metal. However, only a portion of these reserves is being used to back XAUT, as the amount of tokens in circulation corresponds to about 16.2 tons of gold (1,329 gold bars).

Why are investors choosing XAUT?

XAUT is one of the easiest ways to get exposure to gold as an investment, especially if you are already in the crypto ecosystem. All you need is an Ethereum-compatible wallet with some funds, and you can buy XAUT within seconds on a DEX like Uniswap. 

When buying XAUT on Uniswap, I had the same kind of “aha moment” that I first got when I just got started with crypto. The realization that I just added some gold to my portfolio in seconds without KYC or other tedious processes reminded me that blockchain does indeed enable some very cool things already, despite the community constantly lamenting the lack of adoption.

You can, of course, also sell XAUT as easily as you can buy it, which is much more convenient than the process of selling physical gold. This makes it one of the most highly liquid methods of getting exposure to gold. The market for XAUT is open 24/7, and anyone across the globe can access it instantly thanks to decentralized exchanges.

Another advantage of XAUT is its divisibility. With XAUT, you can get exposure to as little as 0.000001 ounces of gold, making it truly accessible to everyone.

What to keep in mind when buying gold-backed tokens like XAUT

While gold-backed tokens like XAUT are an extremely convenient way to invest in gold, holding them isn’t quite the same as holding physical gold. 

Most importantly, these tokens come with counterparty risk. Gold-backed tokens are ultimately based on trust in the issuer (for example, Tether for XAUT) to maintain the gold reserves, keep them properly secured, and honor redemptions. If the custodian fails financially, acts dishonestly, or can no longer access the bullion, the tokens may drop in value, or you may not be able to recover that value at all.

On top of that, the on-chain infrastructure introduces its own set of risks: hacks, technical flaws, or smart contract malfunctions could lock you out of your tokens or cause the token supply to drift from what’s actually held in reserve.

Converting tokens back into physical gold or cash isn’t always straightforward. Redemptions can come with minimum thresholds, extra costs, and geographic or legal constraints, and in volatile conditions, the issuer may pause or slow redemptions. Meanwhile, owning physical gold gives you direct control as you can store it yourself and sell it whenever you choose.

In this article, we mostly focused our attention on XAUT, since it’s the most popular gold-backed token. However, it’s worth mentioning that PAXG is functionally very similar, and the choice between the two really just comes down to which issuer you trust more (Tether or Paxos). 

What’s next for gold: Investors anticipate new price records in 2026

Gold in 2025 has lived up to its reputation as a “safe haven” and has proven to be one of the most successful investments. Its rise was driven by a rare combination of factors: lower interest rates and real yields, heightened geopolitical and trade uncertainty, a noticeable weakening of the U.S. dollar, and steady demand from central banks.

The algorithmic gold price forecast from CoinCodex, which is based on the asset’s price history, volatility, and broader market trends, anticipates that gold will continue rallying throughout 2026 and hit a peak at around $6,400. 

While this forecast is extremely bullish, CoinCodex isn’t alone in projecting that the gold price will continue to hit new all-time highs in 2026. 

Major investment bank Goldman Sachs recently conducted a survey of 900 institutional investor clients, and 36% of them predict that gold will hit $5,000 in 2026. Meanwhile, 33% of the respondents provided a more conservative prediction that gold will reach between $4,500 and $5,000, which would also result in new all-time highs (the current record is at around $4,377).

Daan Struyven, head of commodity research at Goldman Sachs, has provided a $4,900 price target, citing central bank demand and continued Fed rate cuts as key drivers that will lead to higher gold prices.

Meanwhile, analysts at both JPMorgan and HSBC expect the gold price to surpass $5,000 next year.

The post Why Investors Are Turning to XAUT: Market Analysis and Gold Forecast Through 2026 appeared first on BeInCrypto.

Zcash shocked the cryptocurrency market in the last 3 months. It delivered one of the most powerful rallies of the year despite previously being written off by a large portion of the cryptocurrency community as a dead-end project. 

Notably, the Zcash rally played a significant role in putting privacy tech at the forefront of the conversation in the crypto community. This led to increased interest in other privacy coins (Monero, Dash) and protocols like Railgun. 

ZEC Skyrocketed 10x

ZEC, which started October at a price of roughly $73, rallied all the way up to $736 by November 7, a return of over 10x in just over 2 months. During this surge, ZEC rocketed up the crypto market cap rankings, and currently sits in 15th place.

After hitting the $736 peak, the Zcash price made two attempts to set new highs, but came up short both times. The first attempt practically matched the $736 peak, while the second fizzled out at roughly $712, setting the stage for a deeper correction to the $500 level, which is currently the focal point of the ZEC market.

The price increase has also spurred increased on-chain activity, as analysts at OurNetwork noted that Zcash has recently posted its most active week of 2025, boasting a 197% week-over-week jump in transfer transactions.

Why Zcash could rally to $1,000 and beyond

We’ve recently seen multiple developments that suggest the Zcash rally could still continue further, breaking past the resistance just above $700. 

The algorithmic Zcash price prediction on CoinCodex is supporting this scenario, forecasting that Zcash will reach the $1,000 price level in Q2 of 2026. 

Here are some of the key factors that could help ZEC actually reach that predicted milestone.

Grayscale files to convert its ZCSH trust into an ETF 

Crypto asset manager Grayscale has filed an S-3 registration statement with U.S. securities regulator SEC with the aim of converting its Grayscale Zcash Trust product into a spot ETF. The Grayscale Zcash Trust, which currently trades on the OTC market, has been available since 2017. 

In its filing, Grayscale highlighted the differences between Zcash and Bitcoin:

“The fundamental difference between Bitcoin and Zcash is that Zcash offers selective privacy-preserving features. Zcash accomplishes this privacy preservation by using novel cryptographic protocols called Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge (“zk-SNARKs”) to protect both the amount and the sender and recipient of the transaction.”

Given the current wave of altcoin ETF approvals (ETFs for XRP, SOL, HBAR and DOGE are now available), it wouldn’t be too surprising to see a Zcash ETF be approved for trading in the US market. Still, it’s worth keeping in mind that Zcash’s focus on privacy could make it more difficult to convince regulators to approve investment products tied to it. Currently, there isn’t a single ETF on the US market that focuses on a privacy coin.

Cypherpunk Technologies (CYPH) plans to acquire 5% of the ZEC supply

Another potential source of bullish momentum for Zcash is Cypherpunk Technologies, a Zcash-focused DAT (digital asset treasury) company backed by the Winklevoss Twins. 

Cypherpunk, which trades under the ticker CYPH, now holds 233,644 ZEC and plans to acquire 5% of the supply. Given that they currently own about 1.4% of the supply, Cypherpunk could provide a persistent source of buying pressure as they scale their treasury towards the 5% target.

The firm has so far spent roughly $68 million to grow its Zcash treasury, and its average cost basis is around $291 per ZEC.

It’s easier than ever to trade and invest in Zcash

The Zashi wallet is integrated with NEAR Intents, allowing users to easily swap crypto assets from a variety of different blockchains for ZEC. The wallet also provides easy access to Zcash’s privacy features as it simplifies the shielding experience. 

The shielded ZEC supply has reached nearly 5 million coins (it was under 2 million at the beginning of 2025). As more ZEC becomes shielded, the anonymity set grows, strengthening Zcash’s overall privacy. 

The leading decentralized trading platform Hyperliquid has listed ZEC perpetual futures, enabling users on the widely used DEX to take leveraged positions in the privacy-focused asset. This listing points to strong community interest in gaining exposure to a coin that the market had largely overlooked for years.

Zcash can also be easily traded on the high-performance Solana blockchain, thanks to solutions such as Zenrock’s wrapped Zcash token (zenZEC).

The bottom line

Zcash’s 10x rally has thrust privacy tech back into the spotlight and sparked a surge in on-chain activity, but multiple catalysts suggest the move may not be over. 

With Grayscale seeking to convert its ZEC trust into an ETF, Cypherpunk Technologies buying toward a 5% supply target, rading access constantly improving through tools like the Zashi wallet, Hyperliquid futures, and an ever-growing list of integrations, the foundations for another leg up remain firmly in place. If momentum continues and regulatory hurdles don’t stall progress, it’s possible that $1,000 ZEC might be a conservative target.

The post Zcash (ZEC) ETF Hopes Rise: Is $1,000 Now in Play? appeared first on BeInCrypto.