Built by Tezos R&D hub Trilitech, the new web app brings tokenized rare earth metals on-chain alongside gold and uranium as AI-driven industrial demand intensifies.
Metals.io, a new commodity tokenization platform built in the Tezos ecosystem, went live on Monday, giving users access to tokenized gold, uranium, and a basket of rare-earth metals through a single web application.
Developed by Trilitech, a London-based Tezos R&D hub, the platform launches with three assets: xU3O8 tokenized uranium, VNX Gold (VNXAU) — a gold-backed token representing allocated bullion held in Liechtenstein vaults — and the RARE token from Noemon Tech, which offers exposure to a diversified basket of five strategic metals, including hafnium, rhenium, indium, neodymium oxide, and praseodymium oxide.
The platform leverages Tezos’ smart-rollup technology, which the team says delivers sub-50ms latency for near-instant transaction confirmations.
Metals.io extends the same underlying technology as uranium.io, a tokenized uranium trading platform that launched on Etherlink — the EVM-compatible Layer 2 powered by Tezos — in December 2024.
“Commodity markets are global and indispensable, yet access to them remains fragmented and layered with intermediaries,” said Arthur Breitman, co-founder of Tezos. “As the AI revolution accelerates, energy and critical materials are becoming core economic constraints. Tokenization streamlines ownership and transfer of these assets at a global scale.”
Tokenized RWA Boom
The launch comes as tokenized gold has emerged as one of the fastest-growing segments in the broader real-world asset (RWA) sector. The tokenized commodities market stands at approximately $7 billion, according to RWAxyz, with gold-backed tokens still dominating the category.
Tether Gold (XAUT) and Paxos Gold (PAXG) remain the dominant players, controlling more than 95% of the tokenized gold market. Tether recently expanded XAUT to BNB Chain as it pushes its gold-backed token across multiple ecosystems.
Where Metals.io looks to carve out a niche is in its rare earth and industrial metals offering — a category that has seen less tokenization activity than gold despite surging demand.
In February, President Trump signed an executive order creating a $12 billion critical mineral stockpile — dubbed “Project Vault” — backed by a $10 billion loan from the U.S. Export-Import Bank and $2 billion in private sector financing.
The RARE token from Noemon Tech provides exposure to this space. “The current rapid pace of innovation in the AI sector and several other related fields is having a knock-on effect on demand for metals and materials that are critical to these endeavors,” said Dimitrios Kavvathas, founder of Noemon Tech. The token provides exposure to elements like hafnium and rhenium, which are essential in semiconductor manufacturing, jet engines, and other high-tech applications.
Meanwhile, the broader tokenized RWA sector continues to grow rapidly. Tokenized RWAs crossed $20 billion in on-chain value in early 2025, and the figure has continued climbing since then. Ethereum alone now hosts over $15 billion in tokenized real-world assets. However, the sector still faces structural challenges — a December report from RWAio estimated that blockchain fragmentation is costing the tokenized asset market between $600 million and $1.3 billion annually due to cross-chain price discrepancies and transaction friction.
This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.