PAXG vs XAUT: Which Gold Token Tracks the Gold Price More Closely?

PAX Gold (PAXG) tracked the gold price more closely than Tether Gold (XAUT), sitting an average 0.251% from Phemex's gold perpetual at 245 daily closes from 31 January to 2 October 2026. XAUT averaged 0.402% on the same CoinMarketCap closes, which settles PAXG vs XAUT on tracking even though XAUT is the larger token.

The spread runs almost entirely one way. XAUT closed below the gold perpetual on 244 of the 245 closes and below PAXG on 211, for a mean discount to PAXG of 0.238%. That head-to-head gap shrank to 0.043% over the last 30 closes. On 2 October XAUT still closed 0.230% under PAXG, at $4,142.26 against $4,151.83, with the perpetual at 4,152.09 USDT.

PAXG vs XAUT at a Glance

What Is PAX Gold (PAXG)?

PAX Gold is the gold token Paxos issues, and each PAXG stands for one fine troy ounce of a London Good Delivery gold bar. Paxos's PAX Gold page says the bars sit in LBMA vaults in London under the custody of Paxos Trust Company, and that a PAXG holder owns the gold underneath. The token runs on Ethereum and Solana, and a holder with PAXG in an on-chain wallet can look up the serial number and weight of the bar behind it. CoinMarketCap dates PAXG's launch to 5 September 2019.

Our explainer on PAX Gold, the crypto backed by gold walks through how PAXG works and who stands behind it.

What Is Tether Gold (XAUT)?

Tether Gold is the gold token from Tether, the company behind the USDT stablecoin, and CoinMarketCap dates its launch to 23 January 2020. Each XAUT stands for one fine troy ounce, and Tether's reserve reports state that its gold covers at least one ounce per token.

Tether's transparency page, last updated at 23:30 UTC on 2 October 2026, counted 827,417.63 XAUT minted on Ethereum. Of those, 709,323.66 were in circulation and 118,093.97 waited in Tether's hands, ready for sale. The same page lists 13,350.19 XAUT on BNB Smart Chain and puts Tether's total gold reserves at 827,417.63 ounces, matching the Ethereum mint.

Our guide to Tether Gold (XAUT) and tokenized gold covers the token's background and how it came to market.

How Do PAXG and XAUT Differ?

Tether Gold vs Pax Gold comes down to who answers for the metal, how often someone checks it and where each token trades.

Issuer and Regulation

Paxos's PAXG page describes Paxos as a trust company and custodian regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the US supervisor of national banks. Its PAXG attestation page calls the New York State Department of Financial Services Paxos's prudential regulator and says that regulator approved KPMG as examiner. The PAXG page, read at 04:33 UTC on 3 October 2026, also says PAXG is unavailable in the EU.

Tether reports on XAUT through a quarterly Gold Reserves report that Tether's management prepares, and BDO Italia issues a reasonable-assurance opinion on it as of each quarter's end. Both tokens follow the model in our guide to asset tokenization on the blockchain, with a vaulted asset off-chain and a token as the claim on it.

Custody and Redemption

Paxos says PAXG holders own allocated gold, and its page lists three ways out. A holder can redeem for LBMA-accredited Good Delivery bars, an institution can take unallocated Loco London gold, and a Paxos customer can redeem for US dollars at the current gold price. The same page sizes a standard bar at 400 troy ounces, about $1.66 million at the 2 October PAXG close, so you need a large holding before the route to physical metal makes sense.

For XAUT, Tether's 30 June 2026 report counted 707,747.139 fine troy ounces with its custodian against 707,747.09 tokens minted, 612,823.66 of them sold. Tether's Gold Reserves report page, read at 04:38 UTC on 3 October, sets out that backing and carries no redemption terms.

Supply and Attestations

Since the 25 March bar PAXG's supply has shrunk while XAUT's has grown. PAXG's Ethereum contract held 432,506.32 PAXG at block 26,109,441 (04:32 UTC on 3 October), and CoinMarketCap counted 435,070.59 at the 2 October close. That count stands 15.4% below the 514,128.80 CoinMarketCap recorded on the 25 March bar, its highest of 2026, though it gained 172 PAXG from the 24 September bar. Paxos's attestation page lists monthly PAXG reports for January through August 2026, and KPMG has issued every report posted since 28 February 2025.

XAUT's circulating count on CoinMarketCap rose 73.3% in 2026, from 409,217.64 at the 31 December 2025 close to 709,323.66 at the 2 October close. It jumped 66,500 on the 26 September bar and another 20,000 on the 29 September bar, a 13.9% rise in four days. Tether's quarterly cadence leaves a lag, too, since the 2 October update shows 119,670.54 more XAUT minted than the 30 June report did.

Market Structure on Phemex

Phemex lists PAXG two ways, as a PAXG/USDT perpetual with leverage up to 50x and as a spot pair. The perpetual's product data sets its funding interval at 14,400 seconds, so funding changes hands every four hours, and our explainer on what the funding rate in crypto futures is covers how that payment works.

XAUT trades on Phemex spot only, as XAUT/USDT, and Phemex lists no XAUT perpetual. On the 2 October bar XAUT spot turned over $2.89 million against $1.98 million for PAXG spot, and the PAXG perpetual traded $78,665. The gold perpetual itself, XAU/USDT, offers up to 100x and turned over $566,308 that day.

The Dated Tracking Record

Both tokens set their highest 2026 close on the same day, 28 January, at $5,536.53 for PAXG and $5,521.54 for XAUT on CoinMarketCap. The 2 October closes left each about 25% below that mark. Over the 30 bars to 2 October XAUT fell 5.51% and PAXG 5.49%, against 5.48% for the gold perpetual.

The month-by-month record shows where the gap came from. PAXG closed nearer the perpetual on all 31 August closes on CoinMarketCap, a month in which XAUT's mean discount reached 0.496%. September narrowed it on the same feed, with XAUT's mean gap falling to 0.199% and PAXG's to 0.165%, and PAXG nearer on 19 of 30 closes. On Monday 28 September the perpetual fell 3.04%, and Phemex spot XAUT closed 0.680% under it while spot PAXG closed 0.021% over it.

PAXG vs XAUT: Which Is Better for Tracking the Gold Price?

PAXG is the better gold token for tracking the gold price, and it wins on all three price feeds we tested.

Method: we measured each token's daily close against the close of Phemex's XAU/USDT perpetual on every full bar from 31 January to 2 October 2026. The perpetual listed at 10:00 UTC on 30 January, so 31 January is its first full day. CoinMarketCap closes are its 23:59 UTC print, CoinGecko's are its 00:00 UTC point on the following day and Phemex's are its own spot bars. The mean gap ignores the sign, so a discount and a premium count the same.

Spot gold doesn't trade on weekends, so we reran the test on the 175 weekday closes alone. PAXG won again with a mean gap of 0.225% against XAUT's 0.388% on CoinMarketCap.

The gap is mostly a direction. XAUT's signed mean on CoinMarketCap was a 0.401% discount, almost the whole of its 0.402% average gap, so XAUT traded under the perpetual on nearly every close. PAXG's signed mean was a 0.163% discount, and it closed above the perpetual on 50 of the 245 closes. Asked as PAXG vs XAUT, which is better at matching the metal, the 245 closes give PAXG.

XAUT's case is size. Tether's 2 October update put 709,323.66 XAUT in circulation against CoinMarketCap's 435,070.59 PAXG, and CoinMarketCap valued XAUT at 1.63 times PAXG at the 2 October closes, $2.94 billion against $1.81 billion. In XAUT vs PAXG terms on Phemex, XAUT spot also out-traded PAXG spot on that bar. If you want the bigger float and the busier Phemex spot book of 2 October, XAUT is the pick, and you accept a discount that averaged 0.402% over the 245 closes to get it. If you want the best gold token for matching the gold price itself, the record points to PAXG.

What Are the Risks of PAXG and XAUT?

PAXG's Float Is Shrinking

CoinMarketCap's PAXG count fell 15.4% between the 25 March and 2 October bars, and the PAXG perpetual turned over $78,665 on 2 October. A book that thin moves on a large order, so the futures route suits you only at small size. Paxos's page also says PAXG is unavailable in the EU.

XAUT Trades at a Discount

XAUT closed below the perpetual on 244 of 245 CoinMarketCap closes, so a holder selling at the daily close in 2026 took a little under the perpetual's price almost every time. Tether also held 118,093.97 XAUT ready for sale on its 2 October update, 16.6% of the circulating count, so supply can arrive in blocks the size of the 26 September jump. On Phemex an XAUT holder can short gold through the XAU/USDT perpetual or the PAXG perpetual, and either hedge covers gold's price while leaving the XAUT discount exposed.

Both Trade Through the Weekend

Both tokens trade every day of the week, and spot gold trades only on weekdays. On Saturday 28 February 2026 PAXG closed 1.493% above the perpetual on CoinMarketCap, its widest gap of the 245 closes. It was also the only close where XAUT finished above the perpetual. Each token is an issuer-backed claim of the kind our guide to real-world assets in crypto describes, so PAXG depends on Paxos Trust Company and XAUT on Tether's custodian.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to hold PAXG?

Paxos's comparison table lists no custody fee for PAXG and a minimum purchase of 0.01 troy ounces. The same table puts major gold ETFs at 19 to 40 basis points a year.

When did Phemex list PAXG and XAUT?

Phemex product data dates the PAXG/USDT spot pair to 14 March 2022 and the PAXG/USDT perpetual to 23 December 2022. XAUT/USDT spot followed on 3 July 2025.

Did PAXG or XAUT do better in 2026?

From the 31 December 2025 close to 2 October 2026, CoinMarketCap shows PAXG down 4.12% and XAUT down 4.20%. CoinGecko's closes flip the order, with PAXG down 4.20% and XAUT down 4.08%, so the 2026 winner depends on the feed.

What was XAUT worth in Tether's last reserve report?

Tether's 30 June 2026 report put the market value of XAUT in circulation at $2,836,664,492, using a gold price of $4,008.02 an ounce. It counted 94,923.43 XAUT minted and still available for sale on that date.

Bottom Line

XAUT's tracking gap is a cost you pay at the exit. A holder who buys at a 0.4% discount and sells at the same discount loses nothing to it, and the cost lands only on someone who needs gold's own price on the day they sell. The last 30 closes cut the head-to-head gap to 0.043% while 96,500 more XAUT reached buyers between Tether's 30 June report and its 2 October update. That's the pairing to watch, because a discount that holds near zero while supply keeps growing would give XAUT its size and PAXG's tracking at once.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. Cryptocurrency trading involves substantial risk. Always do your own research before making investment decisions.