Pax Gold & Tether Gold are stablecoins with a value pegged to the price of physical gold.
The unit of measurement for gold on the stock exchanges is the troy ounce, or 28.3 grams. There are, however, only a few investors who are skilled at investing in gold.
Paxos and Tether, the issuers of PAXG and XAUT, have taken up this challenge. We investigated the fundamental differences among these tokens, their peculiarities, and highlighted the most popular one.
A glance at the background
PAXG was formally launched on 5 September 2019. Initially, the asset appeared on decentralized platforms and on the Kraken cryptocurrency exchange. The asset became available for purchase on the Paxos website as well.
PAXG price chart (CoinMaketCap)
Tether's XAUT hit the exchanges on January 26, 2020. The first day's trading volume was a mere $30,000.
XAUT price chart (CoinGecko)
Both coins are made as ERC20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain.
Statistics
The table illustrates the qualitative indicators of both stablecoins, allowing us to compare the usage statistics and overall liquidity of PAXG and XAUT:
It is clear that PAXG is more popular, as it is traded on a wider array of exchanges. XAUT also has a lower transfer quantity, holder count and daily trading volume.
Token collateralization
According to the Paxos website, PAXG is backed by Good Delivery gold bullion certified by the London Bullion Market at a 1:1 ratio. Stablecoin can also be exchanged for physical Loco London Gold - if among institutional investors and clients of the company such a need arises. PAXG's collateral is audited every month.
PAXG Stablecoin features (paxos.com/paxgold)
Tether Cold (XAUT) consists of 611 gold bullion tokens with a total weight of 7643.71 kilograms. The tokens are exchanged for a physical asset at many Swiss locations.
Overall, both stablecoins are fully backed by real assets and could be converted by the user on demand.
XAUT Stablecoin features (gold.tether.to)
PAXG and XAUT - how to get one
PAXG is listed on many centralized exchanges, such as Binance, KuCoin, Crypto.com, Kraken, Mexc and others. XAUT is available for users of Bitfinex, OKX, HUOBI and Gate. A decentralized exchange, Uniswap, also lists both coins.
A full list of available cryptocurrency exchanges can be found at CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap analytical resources in the Markets section.
Synopsis
PAXG has considerably higher liquidity than its rival Tether. Paxos cryptocurrency gold is widely and frequently listed, exchanges are more loyal to it, while there is no technological or structural difference separating PAXG and XAUT. They are both on the same blockchain, with the same issuance and the same full-fledged collateral.
Pax Gold likely took the lead thanks to an earlier listing and a better marketing campaign.
