BlockBeats News: On May 4th, the gold market is undergoing changes, with central bank purchases slowing down and demand for exchange traded funds (ETFs) and gold backed cryptocurrencies increasing. The latter has recently reached its highest level in three years, measured by net casting volume.
According to rwa.xyz's data, over $80 million worth of gold backed tokens have been minted in the past month. This growth has driven the market value of the industry to increase by 6%, reaching $1.43 billion. At the same time, the monthly transfer volume surged by 77% to $1.27 billion, marking a significant increase in interest in the representation of gold numbers.
The latest report from the World Gold Council shows that the total demand for gold in the first quarter of this year reached 1206 tons, a year-on-year increase of 1%, the strongest first quarter since 2016. Despite the central bank's purchase volume slowing down to 244 tons, lower than the 365 tons in the fourth quarter, demand remains strong. Gold ETFs played a central role in this transformation. The investment demand has more than doubled to 552 tons, indicating that investors are turning to gold, a move historically dominated by central banks.
These capital inflows have driven the average quarterly price of gold to a record high of $2860 per ounce, a year-on-year increase of 38%. However, last week the gold price fell by 2.35%, although it has risen by 23.5% so far this year.
