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Gold and silver on crypto exchanges

On crypto exchanges gold and silver can trade in two ways: tokens backed by physical gold, and perpetual futures that track the gold or silver price. These products trade 24/7, while the traditional market is closed at weekends. That difference changes how weekend prices and Monday opens should be read.

Weekend traditional market closed Friday close Token / perpetual Traditional market The gap closes at the open Time
The drawing uses example data. The thin continuous line shows the token or perpetual price and the thick line the traditional market price. The traditional market is closed in the shaded section; the dashed orange line is the Friday closing level and the orange dot the token's price just before the open.

Tokenised gold

Tokenised gold is a crypto token that represents a set amount of physical gold. The two best-known examples are PAXG (Paxos Gold) and XAUT (Tether Gold). Each PAXG is backed by one fine troy ounce of gold meeting LBMA standards; each XAUT by one troy ounce of gold on a London Good Delivery bar.

A token is not the gold itself but something like a claim on gold held by the issuer. Its price usually stays close to spot gold, but it is set by trading in the token, so it can trade at a small premium or discount to spot.

Gold and silver perpetuals

Some crypto exchanges offer perpetual futures that track the gold and silver price (often under the tickers XAU and XAG). These involve no physical delivery; profit and loss are usually settled in a stablecoin. The exchange tries to keep the contract price close to a reference price (an index) that it defines.

The mechanism that keeps the price near the index is the funding rate: payments between long and short positions at set intervals, every few hours on most exchanges. If the contract trades above the index, longs pay; if below, shorts pay. The rate and how it is calculated vary from exchange to exchange.

24/7 versus traditional market hours

In the traditional market, gold and silver trade nearly 24 hours on weekdays: the over-the-counter (OTC) spot market and COMEX futures pause only briefly each day. But at weekends these markets are closed; roughly from Friday evening to Sunday evening (US Eastern time) there is no trading.

Tokens and perpetuals keep trading through the weekend. During those hours the price is set not by the traditional market but by the buyers and sellers on that exchange.

How the weekend price forms

  1. The traditional market closes on Friday evening. Spot and futures prices stay at their last traded level. Token and perpetual prices keep trading.
  2. The price drifts on thin liquidity at the weekend. With few trades, price can move away from the closing level, up or down. News can show up in this price, but the volume behind the move is small.
  3. The traditional market reopens on Sunday evening. The opening price can differ from where the token got to over the weekend. If so, the token or perpetual price can jump towards the opening price.
  4. The difference closes, or it does not. The token price often moves back towards spot after the open. Sometimes the weekend move is confirmed by the traditional open; sometimes it is fully reversed.

Things to consider

  • Issuer and counterparty. A token relies on the issuer actually holding the gold, in full. How that is audited and reported varies between issuers.
  • Physical redemption. Turning a token into physical gold may be possible, but there are often minimum amounts (for example a whole bar), fees and conditions set by the issuer.
  • Premiums and discounts. A token or perpetual price can drift away from spot; the gap can widen especially at weekends and in sharp moves.
  • Exchange and funding. On a perpetual, the price depends on the exchange's index, the funding rate and the margin rules. Funding payments can noticeably change the cost of a position held for a long time.

This page does not compare or recommend products. The details are in the issuer's and the exchange's own documents and can change over time.

What it shows, what it does not prove

What it shows

  • How gold and silver are priced on the crypto market at weekends
  • The first reaction to news while the traditional market is closed
  • How far a token or perpetual price has drifted from spot

What it does not prove

  • That the traditional market will open near the weekend price
  • That a token will always trade exactly at the spot price
  • That the issuer or the exchange is free of risk

The MarketLevelMap view

How it relates to zones

Weekend moves on thin liquidity can look as if they have reached a support or resistance zone. Because those prices form on few trades, a weekend test of a zone may not carry the same weight as a test during the week.

Reading zones as a band helps here too: weekend wicks and jumps at the Monday open often stay inside the band. Zones can shift slightly between a gold chart on a crypto exchange and the traditional spot chart; saying which data you use makes the reading clearer.

Often confused with

For general information only. Not investment advice.Last updated: