What happened
Bybit, the Dubai-headquartered derivatives exchange that ranks second globally by perpetual futures volume, opened trading on XAUT options on Monday. CryptoBriefing first reported the launch, citing the exchange's product announcement. The contracts are cash-settled, listed against a USDT-denominated XAUT index, and follow Bybit's existing options framework that already supports Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana strikes.
XAUT, issued by Tether since 2020, represents one troy ounce of physical gold per token, with bullion held in a vault in Switzerland. The token has traded a tight basis to the LBMA gold spot price for most of its history, with redemption requiring a minimum of 50 tokens. As of Monday's launch, XAUT's circulating supply sits near $850 million, a fraction of Tether's $130 billion-plus USDT float but the largest tokenized gold product by market cap, ahead of Paxos Gold (PAXG).
Bybit said the options market opens with weekly and monthly expiries and standard strike spacing. Maker rebates and taker fees mirror the venue's BTC options schedule.
Why it matters
This is the first time a major centralized crypto exchange has listed derivatives on a tokenized real-world asset. Spot RWA tokens have existed for years, but the derivative layer, where institutions actually manage risk, has been missing. Listing XAUT options is a small product on paper. The signal it sends is not small.
Gold options on COMEX and the LBMA over-the-counter market are a multi-trillion-dollar annual volume business, dominated by bullion banks, miners hedging production, and macro funds. None of that flow currently touches crypto venues. By offering a tokenized wrapper that already has CME-grade collateral characteristics, Bybit is testing whether crypto-native market makers can quote competitive prices on a metal that has been hedged in the same way for a century.