In traditional financial markets, gold and silver have long served as cornerstone assets for global investors, thanks to their safe-haven qualities and resilience against inflation. In 2025, gold prices surged nearly 65%—marking the largest annual increase since 1979—while silver soared 147%, setting a new historical record. However, conventional approaches to investing in gold and silver—whether buying physical bullion, allocating through ETFs, or trading futures—remain constrained by fixed exchange hours and the complexities of fiat currency conversion.
Gate’s integration of traditional finance (TradFi) and tokenized assets is breaking these structural limitations. Users no longer need to open a brokerage account or convert fiat currency. Instead, they can invest directly in gold and silver using familiar USDT within a single account.
Latest Developments in the Gold and Silver Markets
Before diving into Gate’s platform operations, it’s important to review the current fundamentals of the precious metals market. As of May 20, 2026, the global precious metals market stands at a critical juncture shaped by multiple competing factors.
On the pricing front, gold has recently undergone a notable correction. On May 19, the June gold futures contract on the New York Commodity Exchange (COMEX) closed at $4,511.2 per ounce, down $46.8 or 1.03% from the previous day—the lowest since March 27. Spot gold ended the New York session at $4,482.85 per ounce, trading within a range of $4,589.22 to $4,464.95. For silver, spot prices in New York on May 19 dropped 5.13% to $73.7275 per ounce, with intraday trading between $78.8980 and $73.0977. However, in the Asian market’s early session on May 20, spot silver rebounded to $74.058 per ounce, up 0.41% on the day.
From a macro perspective, the main pressure behind gold’s recent pullback stems from a strengthening US dollar and rising US Treasury yields. The 10-year Treasury yield is nearing its highest level in over a year, while the dollar index is also climbing. Higher yields significantly increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets like gold. On a deeper level, the Iran war and the Hormuz Strait crisis have driven international oil prices higher, rapidly pushing up global inflation expectations. Markets fear the Federal Reserve may be forced to maintain high rates or even raise rates again, directly weighing on precious metals’ short-term valuations.
Institutional views and outlooks remain bullish on gold’s long-term prospects despite short-term pressures. JPMorgan’s latest precious metals report states: "This is a pause, not a reversal." The bank maintains a fourth-quarter 2026 gold target of $6,000 per ounce and an average price forecast of $5,243 per ounce for 2026. Key long-term drivers include the US fiscal deficit and debt risks, global "de-dollarization," geopolitical fragmentation, and ongoing central bank diversification of reserves. For silver, JPMorgan notes that its strong outperformance over gold in the past year was due to extreme tightness in the global silver market, though this supply-demand imbalance is now easing.
Against this backdrop of "short-term pressure, long-term bullishness," the opportunity to allocate gold and silver is becoming increasingly valuable.
Two Core Paths to Investing in Gold and Silver on Gate
Gate offers users two main ways to invest in gold and silver: the TradFi CFD path and the Alpha tokenized asset path. Each follows a different underlying logic, catering to distinct investment goals and strategy styles.
Path One: Gate TradFi—Trade Gold and Silver CFDs Directly with USDT
Gate TradFi is Gate’s all-in-one multi-asset trading solution, enabling users to trade cryptocurrencies, gold (XAU), silver (XAG), forex, global indices, and stock CFDs using a single crypto account. Investing in gold and silver on Gate TradFi essentially means trading CFDs (contracts for difference) pegged to gold and silver prices.
The TradFi path offers three core advantages:
- Leverage tools tailored for diverse strategies. Gate’s perpetual metal contracts (XAU and XAG), launched in January 2026, support up to 50x leverage, USDT settlement, and 24/7 uninterrupted trading. This flexibility allows both short-term traders and trend followers to adjust leverage levels within the same interface.
- Bidirectional trading across bull and bear cycles. In traditional markets, shorting gold involves high barriers and friction costs. On Gate TradFi, users can go long when prices are rising or short when expecting declines. This bidirectional mechanism enables investors to actively capture price swings, regardless of market direction.
- Continuous 24/7 trading. Traditional gold markets are bound by fixed exchange hours and close entirely on weekends and holidays. When major macro events—such as Fed rate decisions, geopolitical shocks, or key economic data releases—occur outside trading hours, investors face both price gaps and liquidity vacuums. Gate’s perpetual metal contracts remove these structural constraints, letting users adjust positions instantly as events unfold, turning risk management from reactive to proactive.
Path Two: Gate Alpha—Trade Tokenized Gold and Silver
Compared to the TradFi CFD path, the Gate Alpha zone offers spot trading of tokenized precious metals. The core logic is to tokenize ownership or income rights of physical precious metals, with each token representing a specific quantity of metal held by a custodian and tightly pegged to spot prices.
Currently, Gate Alpha features tokenized gold products like XAUT (Tether Gold) and PAXG (PAX Gold). Each XAUT and PAXG token corresponds to one troy ounce of physical gold ownership, stored in audited, regulated vaults. The advantage of tokenized gold is that holders avoid the costs and risks of physical storage, while enjoying the ability to hold, transfer, and trade this traditional safe-haven asset in a crypto wallet. The price gap between tokenized metals and spot gold has narrowed to single-digit dollars, with increasing linkage efficiency.
The Alpha path focuses on long-term holding and asset allocation of spot tokens, while TradFi emphasizes short-term trading and directional speculation with leveraged contracts. These paths are complementary—not mutually exclusive. Investors can flexibly switch or combine them based on risk preferences and strategy horizons.
How to Make Your First Gold or Silver Trade on Gate TradFi
Here’s a step-by-step guide for trading XAU/USDT on Gate TradFi:
Step 1: Update the App and complete prerequisites. Ensure your Gate App is updated to version 8.4.0 or higher. Log in, complete identity verification, and enable TradFi trading permissions.
Step 2: Access the TradFi section and transfer funds. Tap "Contracts" in the bottom navigation bar, then select "TradFi." Click the "Transfer" button at the top to move USDT from your spot account to your TradFi account (the system will display this as USDx).
Step 3: Select your trading pair and set your order. In the TradFi trading interface, choose XAU/USDT (Gold) or XAG/USDT (Silver). Set your desired leverage—different contracts offer varying leverage, from 20x to 100x, with precious metal perpetual contracts supporting up to 50x. Choose your trading direction: go long if you expect prices to rise, short if you anticipate a decline.
Step 4: Set take-profit and stop-loss, then place your order. Before confirming, always set take-profit and stop-loss orders—these are essential for risk management with leverage. After selecting your trade size, tap confirm to open your position. You can track P&L in the positions tab and adjust your holdings as needed.
Strategy Considerations for Investing in Gold and Silver
Given the current "short-term pressure, long-term bullishness" market landscape, investors on Gate TradFi can consider the following strategy framework:
Strategy One: Diversify with low-correlation hedging. Gold has historically shown low correlation with crypto assets. When crypto markets experience volatility, gold’s safe-haven qualities provide independent hedging. By allocating gold and silver within the same account, investors can effectively diversify risk and reduce uncertainty from single-asset swings.
Strategy Two: Capture bidirectional swing opportunities. Gold and silver prices are driven by macroeconomic data and geopolitical events. During key moments—such as Fed rate decisions, nonfarm payrolls, or Hormuz Strait updates—investors can react instantly using Gate’s 24/7 trading, seeking swing-trade opportunities without waiting for markets to reopen.
Strategy Three: Hold tokenized precious metals for the long term. For investors focused on asset preservation and long-term allocation, holding XAUT or PAXG tokenized gold via Gate Alpha is equivalent to owning a digital gold position backed 1:1 by physical gold. This approach avoids traditional storage and delivery hassles, while offering the convenience of instant trading and on-chain transfers.
Conclusion
Gate TradFi opens a new gateway to traditional precious metals investing for crypto users. As of May 20, gold and silver are in a short-term correction, but major international banks continue to uphold their long-term bullish outlook for these assets. Through Gate’s dual TradFi and Alpha offerings, users can participate in 24/7 gold and silver trading without switching accounts or converting fiat, leveraging lower barriers, faster response times, and a richer toolkit to build a truly diversified multi-asset portfolio.
FAQ
Q1: Do I need a traditional brokerage account to invest in gold and silver on Gate TradFi?
No. Gate TradFi operates on a native crypto trading architecture. Users can invest in traditional financial assets using their Gate account without opening a brokerage account or converting fiat currency.
Q2: What’s the minimum investment threshold for gold and silver?
Compared to buying physical bullion or certain ETFs, the threshold for investing in gold and silver on Gate is much lower. You can start trading with the USDT balance in your existing account, often requiring only a fraction of the amount needed for traditional methods.
Q3: Are gold prices on Gate consistent with international spot prices?
Yes. Gate’s perpetual metal contracts use composite indices from multiple authoritative precious metals markets as pricing benchmarks, ensuring contract prices are reasonably linked to global spot markets. Tokenized gold assets (like XAUT and PAXG) are directly pegged to the international spot price of physical gold.
Q4: What risks should I be aware of when investing in gold and silver on Gate?
Key risks include market volatility (precious metal prices can swing sharply due to macro factors), leverage risk (leverage amplifies both gains and losses), liquidity risk (extreme market conditions may lead to insufficient depth), and regulatory risk (policy changes may affect trading conditions). Investors should fully understand product features, set leverage levels carefully, and strictly implement take-profit and stop-loss orders.
Q5: Should beginners choose the TradFi or Alpha path?
Beginners are advised to start with tokenized precious metals in the Alpha path, as it doesn’t involve leverage and is better suited for learning price behavior and trading processes. Once you gain experience, you can gradually explore leveraged contract trading in TradFi. The two paths are not mutually exclusive—investors can combine them flexibly according to their risk preferences.
