Digitizing Commodities: A Look at Real-World Asset Tokenization

Abstract

Precious metals have long been considered safe assets, yet their physical nature often limits liquidity, divisibility, and global accessibility. With the emergence of tokenized commodities, a fundamental shift can be seen in how traditional assets are digitized and traded. However, systematic analysis of these products remains limited.  This study applies a rigorous due diligence framework to analyze eight tokenized commodity products listed on rwa.xyz. These products are issued across diverse jurisdictions, including the U.S., U.K., Liechtenstein, UAE, and British Virgin Islands. Each product was evaluated across legal structure, regulatory compliance, redemption rights, and peg mechanisms. The analysis combined a qualitative legal review with on-chain analytics from Etherscan, revealing significant differences in transparency and market engagement. For example, Paxos Gold showed high adoption with over 68,000 holders and nearly $900 million in monthly transfer volume, while products such as tPlatinum and VNX Gold had minimal usage. The findings indicate that the RWA tokenization of precious metals creates efficiency through 24/7 trading and fractional ownership while introducing new regulatory and custodial requirements, showing that successful commodities require legal frameworks and transparent operations to bridge traditional and decentralized finance ecosystems. This research and methodology lay the groundwork for future academic and industry assessments of tokenized commodity markets.