How do tokenised gold and property work?

Gold in a vault

The WEF says firms including Paxos, Tether, WisdomTree and HSBC have launched gold-backed tokens.¹ Its 2025 report said Paxos's PAXG and Tether's XAUT made up 99% of the tokenised commodity market.¹

As of 22 October 2026, Paxos's website says each PAXG token is backed by one fine troy ounce of gold, kept in vaults in London. It says PAXG holders own that gold, and that Paxos Trust Company holds it in custody.² Paxos says the gold is audited monthly, and that it publishes a report on PAXG each month. It also says holders can look up the serial number, weight and vault of their gold by wallet address.²

The WEF points to the weak spots.¹

• Gold tokens rely heavily on custodians keeping the metal safe, and on auditors checking it is there.¹
• Not all gold token issuers let you swap the token for physical gold.¹
• The tokens trade around the clock, but ordinary gold markets close at weekends, so prices can drift apart.¹

On 22 October 2026, RWA.xyz showed $5.28 billion of distributed tokenised commodities. XAUT was about $3.1 billion and PAXG about $1.8 billion.^5,6

Property inside a company

The FSB describes a property token as a fractional share of a financial interest in property.³ One way to build that is to put the building into a company, and make the tokens shares in that company.⁴

The OECD describes an early case from France in 2019. A luxury property, the AnnA Villa, was transferred by notarial deed to a company.⁴ That company was split into 100 tokens on Ethereum. Each token could be divided 10,000 ways, so the smallest stake cost €6.50.⁴

Land law still applies. In 2020, the OECD noted that in Russia, ownership of property must be registered with the state. So each token trade would also need an off-chain entry in the public register.⁴

The WEF says real estate tokens still face open questions, such as how property deeds would transfer. It also notes that existing property funds already offer similar benefits.¹

On 22 October 2026, RWA.xyz showed $229.39 million of distributed tokenised real estate, and $1.34 billion represented.⁷

A real case: RealT in Detroit

In July 2025, the City of Detroit sued Real Token (RealT), its two co-founders and 165 related companies, over more than 400 homes.^8,9 The city said Real Token markets itself as a platform that lets international investors buy fractional ownership of rental homes through tokens.⁸

The city alleged widespread breaches of health and safety codes. It also alleged that Real Token used a complex web of LLCs and shell companies to dodge upkeep.⁸ A judge's temporary order then barred the companies from collecting rent until each home was repaired and certified.⁸ Under a July 2025 ruling, all rent from RealT's tenants had to go into a special account that could only be used for repairs.⁹

In March 2026, Outlier Media reported that RealT had stopped almost all weekly payouts to investors. Those payouts had come from the rent RealT said it collected.⁹ RealT's lawyer gave the company's side. He said the city had not cooperated in running the repair account, which made the repair backlog and the company's cash problems worse.⁹

On 22 April 2026, a judge approved an agreement between the city and RealT. It put a "special fiduciary", an outside manager with wide powers, in control of about 700 RealT properties, Outlier Media reported in May 2026.¹⁰ RealT's lawyer said the deal gave the company more say, but disputed the city's numbers and plans.¹⁰

In July 2026, Outlier Media reported that one of RealT's co-founders told investors on a 2 July call that the company was "entering voluntary liquidation" and would sell all its assets.¹¹ The city's lawyer said RealT had not yet filed anything in court, and that the announcement did not yet change the case. RealT's lawyer declined to comment.¹¹

This is how the matter stood in reports up to July 2026.¹¹