This week opened with multiple signals flashing at once: gold broke above $5,000, Tether confirmed XAU₮ now controls roughly 60% of the gold-backed stablecoin market, BlackRock expanded its Bitcoin ETF strategy, and industry leaders including Brian Armstrong and Circle’s CEO described an AI-agent future that is already reshaping how companies are structured — and how value moves across global crypto rails.
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Gold Smashes $5,000 — Tokenized Gold Hits Scale
Spot gold is now trading above $5,000 per ounce — currently around $5,081, a historic breakout that immediately re-ignited demand for hard assets as confidence in fiat systems continues to fray.
That move didn’t stay confined to traditional markets. It spilled directly onchain, accelerating demand for tokenized gold — led overwhelmingly by Tether Gold (XAU₮).
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Throughout 2025, the gold-backed stablecoin market expanded rapidly, growing from roughly $1.3 billion to more than $4 billion as investors, institutions, and digital-native capital looked for exposure to physical gold without sacrificing liquidity or portability.
Within that expansion, XAU₮ now represents approximately 60% of total gold-backed stablecoin supply, making it the clear anchor of the tokenized gold market.
Inside XAU₮: Gold at Institutional Scale, Verified Onchain
As of December 31, 2025 (Q4 close), Tether’s disclosures confirm just how large XAU₮ has become:
Total physical gold reserves: 520,089.35 fine troy ounces
XAU₮ tokens in circulation: 520,089.30
Backing: 1:1 — one fine troy ounce per token
Tokens sold: 409,217.64 XAU₮
Tokens available: 110,871.66 XAU₮
Custody: Swiss vaults compliant with LBMA London Good Delivery standards
During Q4 2025 alone, Tether added approximately 27 metric tons of gold, outpacing the gold purchases of most individual central banks over the same period.
According to IMF data and a late-2025 Jefferies report, Tether now ranks among the top 30 gold holders globally, surpassing sovereign holders such as Greece, Qatar, and Australia.
As Paolo Ardoino explained:
XAU₮ is designed to remove ambiguity at a moment when trust in monetary systems is under pressure — with every token representing physically held, vaulted gold that can be verified onchain.
Paolo Ardoino
Gold has been repackaged for a digital, global, 24/7 financial system.
Stablecoins Cross $300B — and Power the Real Economy
While gold grabbed headlines, stablecoins crossed a threshold that matters far more.
By late 2025, the global stablecoin market surpassed $300 billion in total market capitalization, representing roughly 75% year-over-year growth and serving an estimated 49 million active senders worldwide.
Monthly transaction volumes now rival — and often exceed — Visa and PayPal.
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Market structure at a glance:
Tether (USDT): ~58–60% market share
Circle (USDC): ~24–25%
Primary issuance: Ethereum
High-volume transfer rails: TRON and Solana
Stablecoins are now widely used for:
Cross-border remittances
B2B settlement
Treasury management
Inflation hedging in countries like Argentina and Nigeria
Perhaps most telling: stablecoin issuers collectively hold over $133 billion in U.S. Treasuries, placing them among the largest buyers of U.S. government debt.
Bitcoin Evolves: ETFs, Yield, Payments, and Global Reach
This week, BlackRock filed for the iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF, a yield-focused follow-up to its $87B IBIT ETF. The product aims to generate monthly income using a covered-call strategy on Bitcoin futures — signaling Bitcoin’s shift beyond pure price exposure.
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At the same time:
Bitcoin adoption continues scaling in Indonesia
Cathie Wood says this cycle may already be through its most painful phase
Gemini now allows users to earn Bitcoin back on everyday card purchases
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Crypto Infrastructure Goes Public: Ledger Eyes a $4B+ IPO
According to recent reporting, Ledger is exploring a New York IPO at a valuation above $4 billion. If confirmed, it would mark one of the most significant public-market entries for a crypto-native hardware company.
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Politics, Regulation, and the AI–Crypto Collision
President Donald Trump recently indicated he hopes to sign the long-awaited CLARITY Act, designed to define U.S. crypto market structure. At Davos, the message sounded optimistic.
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But markets are telling a more fragile story.
According to Cryptopolitan, U.S. government shutdown odds have spiked to ~78%, reviving fears that political gridlock could once again stall crypto legislation. As momentum around the CLARITY Act slowed, Bitcoin briefly dipped below $86,000 on renewed uncertainty.
At the same time, AI policy is accelerating far faster than financial regulation.
Jensen Huang confirmed plans to manufacture $500 billion worth of AI computing systems inside the United States, crediting President Trump's supportive federal policy.
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AI doesn’t just need compute — it needs money that moves at machine speed. That’s where crypto becomes unavoidable.
AI agents operate:
24/7
Across borders
At sub-second cadence
They require instant settlement, programmable value, and always-on global rails. Crypto is the only system built for that.
Agentic Organizations Are Already Here
Brian Armstrong recently detailed how Coinbase is using AI agents internally:
Real-time monitoring of Slack and internal communications
AI agents actively debating strategy alongside executives
Automated audits of leadership time allocation
Over ⅓ of production code already AI-generated, targeting 50%
And this view is now echoed across the stablecoin sector.
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The CEO of Circle recently confirmed that within 3–5 years, billions of AI agents will use crypto and stablecoins to transfer value at lightning speed.
We’re moving from companies that use AI to agentic organizations that run on it — with crypto as the settlement layer beneath.
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Tracking the Pulse of the Market
Every week at Blockster, we try to capture the pulse of the market — not just the headlines, but the deeper shifts happening underneath. It’s an exciting moment to watch closely, because we're still early.
Gold is breaking records and moving onchain at institutional scale, stablecoins are steadily overtaking Visa and PayPal as global payment infrastructure, Bitcoin is edging toward its next phase as ETF expansion continues and regulatory clarity takes shape, and AI is scaling faster than fiat systems can support.
Keep following these signals and stay ahead of what's next.
