a16z: Tokenized Commodities Market Dominated by Gold, Reaching $5 Billion Scale

On May 23, a16z crypto published an article stating that the current tokenized commodities market is almost entirely dominated by gold. Citing data from rwa.xyz, as of May 7, 2026, the on-chain tokenized gold market has reached roughly $5 billion in scale, occupying the vast majority of market share. In contrast, the tokenized silver market is about $28.1 million, the tokenized gold ETF (iShares Gold Trust) is around $14.1 million, and the total of other commodity categories is approximately $29.5 million. a16z pointed out that gold has features like global circulation, standardization, and a long history of being traded via paper-based certificates, making it naturally suitable for tokenization. Products including Tether Gold (XAUt) and Pax Gold (PAXG) essentially map ownership of gold stored in vaults to on-chain wallets. It also noted that besides gold, commodity assets such as tokenized oil, agricultural products, energy, and computing power remain in a very early stage of development, with relatively limited market share.