Interpreting Galaxy Digital leading Tenbin: How will the new model of tokenized gold change the market?

Gold, as a traditional safe-haven asset, is being integrated with blockchain technology in unprecedented ways. On the Gate platform, mainstream tokenized gold such as XAUTUSDT has a 24-hour trading volume of up to $50.64 million, with a price of $5,192.5.

Today, the tokenized asset protocol Tenbin Labs announced the completion of a $7 million seed round led by Galaxy Ventures, aiming to address core issues such as liquidity shortages and price decoupling in current tokenized gold through an innovative CME futures anchoring mechanism.

Project Core: Tenbin’s Innovative Financing and Market Positioning

The $7 million seed round for Tenbin Labs features a star-studded lineup. The lead investor, Galaxy Ventures, is the venture capital arm of Galaxy Digital, founded by Wall Street legend Mike Novogratz. Participating investors include industry heavyweights such as Wintermute Ventures, GSR, FalconX, Nascent, Variant, Archetype, and Bankless Ventures. The scale of this funding round and the prestigious backgrounds of the participants demonstrate top-tier institutional recognition of Tenbin’s chosen track and solutions.

Founder and CEO Yuki Yuminaga has deep industry insights, having previously been a research partner at Fenbushi Capital. He points out that many on-chain real-world assets currently have significant flaws: thin liquidity, slow settlement, and a serious disconnect between on-chain prices and real-world values. This “structural flaw” limits the practical utility of tokenized assets as collateral or stores of value. Tenbin’s mission is to solve these issues, making on-chain assets more useful than their off-chain counterparts, rather than simply “wrapping” assets on-chain.

Technical Breakthrough: How CME Futures Anchoring Reshapes Tokenized Assets

Unlike traditional “custody-based encapsulation” models, Tenbin has chosen a more innovative technical approach: directly anchoring to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s global futures market. This design allows its tokenized assets to inherit the deep liquidity of traditional financial markets directly. More importantly, this mechanism can automatically capture “futures basis returns,” the spread between futures and spot prices, and pass this yield to token holders.

This model offers significant performance improvements. Tenbin claims to achieve about 30 seconds for minting and redemption (roughly equivalent to 3 Ethereum blocks), with zero minting/redemption fees under normal conditions, while ensuring assets are fully composable within the DeFi ecosystem.

Tenbin plans to launch a series of products reflecting its strategic vision. The first will be a yield-bearing tokenized gold product, expected to debut in early 2026, with support from major brokers such as Hidden Road and StoneX. Subsequently, its product line will expand to high-yield foreign exchange tokens in emerging markets like the Brazilian real and Mexican peso, targeting DeFi users seeking alternatives to USD stablecoins.

Market Context: The Macro Narrative of Gold and the Tokenization Wave

The gold market in 2026 is at a critical macro juncture. Traditional spot gold prices continue to strengthen, with institutions like Goldman Sachs raising their end-of-2026 gold price forecast to $5,400 per ounce. Factors driving gold prices include global central bank monetary policies, ongoing geopolitical uncertainties, and market confidence fluctuations in traditional fiat systems, all contributing to a robust fundamental outlook for gold.

Meanwhile, asset tokenization as a whole is experiencing explosive growth. According to Deutsche Bank research, the global tokenized asset market (excluding stablecoins) was valued at $33 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $3 to $4 trillion by 2030. Institutional investors are expected to allocate 7-9% of their portfolios to tokenized assets by 2027. This trend indicates that traditional finance is accelerating its embrace of blockchain technology, with physical assets like gold being the most natural entry point into this integration.

Ecosystem Status: Digital Gold Map on the Gate Platform

As a vital bridge connecting traditional finance and the crypto world, Gate has built a mature digital gold trading ecosystem.

According to Gate market data, as of January 28, 2026, mainstream tokenized gold products on the platform show strong market activity and subtle differences. XAUT leads with a 24-hour trading volume exceeding $50.64 million, reflecting market demand for highly liquid digital gold. PAXG has a 2.53% 24-hour increase, with its core advantage being strict regulation by the New York Department of Financial Services, providing security for compliance-focused investors. The XAU contract, tracking physical gold prices, offers investors the most direct exposure to gold price risk. These products collectively deconstruct traditional gold investment paradigms, enabling 24/7 trading, micro-ounce fractional units, and breaking down barriers of time and capital for gold investment.

The upcoming launch of Tenbin’s new tokenized gold aims to bring incremental innovation to this ecosystem, especially in capturing futures basis returns and improving redemption speed, potentially offering new strategic options for mature Gate users.

Future Outlook: Integration and Challenges

Tenbin’s successful funding led by Galaxy Digital signifies substantial confidence from traditional financial capital in a niche segment—institutional-grade, highly liquid yield-bearing physical assets tokenization. This is not only financial backing but also a recognition of the underlying market demand.

For ordinary investors, understanding the subtle differences between various tokenized gold products is crucial. Whether to choose mainstream, well-established products like XAUT and PAXG backed by physical gold custody, or to wait for innovative products like Tenbin gold tokens based on derivatives mechanisms, depends on individual risk preferences, return expectations, and understanding of the underlying structures.

Although Tenbin’s technical approach aims to address current pain points, the new model will also face tests. Its reliance on CME futures market performance during extreme market conditions, the stability of basis returns, and the security of smart contracts are factors to monitor continuously. Against the macro backdrop of a strong gold market, tokenized gold is becoming a key node connecting two worlds. It provides a stable value anchor for the crypto market and injects unprecedented liquidity and programmability into this ancient asset.

Tenbin’s successful financing acts as a spotlight, illuminating the next clear evolutionary direction for the tokenized gold track: from simple “on-chain mapping” to “on-chain enhancement.” When investors trade XAUT or PAXG on the Gate platform, they are not just trading gold prices but participating in a rapidly evolving new financial paradigm. The amount of gold held in global gold ETFs grew by 2.3% in Q4 2025, while the market cap of on-chain tokenized gold is many times this figure. The crypto world is building a parallel and interconnected digital replica of ancient gold, with each successful funding and technological breakthrough injecting greater vitality into this digital twin.