Gold prices are trading well above the $3,000 mark on Tuesday hitting the day’s high of $3,017. The XAU/USD index has surged close to 15% year-to-date and is among the top-performing assets in the commodity markets. The phenomenal rise has led to an influx of funds in the precious metal with investors riding the rally.

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Commodity strategists are bullish on gold prices indicating that $3,000 is still considered cheap. The prices could go further north as Trump’s tariffs are shaking the confidence of the stock market. Various businesses are affected due to the tariffs leading to the stock market sending mixed reactions this month.

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UBS Provides New Gold Price Forecast: Here’s the Target

Leading investment bank UBS remains confident that gold prices will surge hereon. It was among the first ones to predict last year that gold could reach the $3,000 mark in the first half of 2025. Now that the forecast has turned accurate, the investment bank has gone further providing a new target for the precious metal.

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According to the latest and revised price prediction from UBS, gold could hit the $3,300 milestone next. That’s another 10% rise from its current price and is a bold and bullish prediction. “With the price now reaching our long-held target of USD 3,000/oz, the main question is whether the rally will continue. We think so, as long as policy risks and an intensifying trade conflict continue to spur safe-haven demand,” said UBS commodity strategists led by Wayne Gordon.

He added that “the prevailing mood among investors remains one of caution for US equities and confidence in gold.” Therefore, there is a higher chance of the glittery metal rallying further and not the broader stock market index. Taking an entry position in the precious metal could still prove beneficial even though it has reached a new ATH. Read here to know a new price prediction on when it could reach the $4,000 mark.

The Boerse Stuttgart Group, the sixth largest exchange group in Europe, is set to establish a market in Switzerland for the trading of digital securities, which are issued using blockchain technology.

As announced by the Boerse Stuttgart Group on March 18, its subsidiary, BX Digital, has become the first Swiss financial market infrastructure to receive a license and authorization from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) to operate a distributed ledger technology (DLT) trading system.

The new platform will create a secondary market for tokenized securities on the Ethereum blockchain and enable the trading of assets like stocks, bonds, and funds, bringing greater liquidity and accessibility to these digital securities.

The direct settlement in Swiss francs and integration with the Swiss National Bank’s payment infrastructure are expected to encourage wider participation from banks and financial institutions.

Building a Digital European Market Infrastructure

“The granting of a license by FINMA to operate a DLT trading system is an important step towards setting new standards in capital market efficiency and client access in the area of digital assets. Until now, regulated secondary markets have been lacking,” said Lidia Kurt, chief executive officer of BX Digital.

Kurt added that BX Digital plans to become one of the leading Swiss financial market infrastructures for trading and decentralized settlement of digital assets.

Matthias Voelkel, chief executive officer of the Boerse Stuttgart Group, confirmed that he is convinced of the advantages of blockchain technology for the European capital market. He stated that the exchange wanted to shape the digital European market infrastructure for tokenized assets, laying the foundation for the completion of the Capital Markets Union (CMU), an initiative to create a single capital market throughout the EU.

Voelkel further added that BX Digital was “just the beginning” and that their digital European issuance and settlement platform would “soon” follow.

In January, BX Digital and BX Swiss also partnershiped with Chainlink, decentralized blockchain oracle network, to bring critical pricing data for Swiss-based equities on-chain.

BX Digital is a sister company of the Swiss exchange BX Swiss – both are part of the Boerse Stuttgart Group.

We are excited to announce that Chainlink has partnered with BX Digital and @bx_swiss, both part of @boersestuttgart—one of the largest exchange groups in Europe.

Chainlink’s data solution for Swiss-based tokenized equities is live on testnet. Once in production on mainnet, BX… pic.twitter.com/LKd4tjsJfO

— Chainlink (@chainlink) January 23, 2025

Driving the European Market for Tokenization

This approval fills a critical gap in the Swiss digital asset market by enabling the trading of digital securities that were previously limited to initial issuance.

BX Digital’s DLT system, leveraging blockchain technology, will facilitate faster, cheaper, and more secure transactions, bypassing traditional intermediaries.

Switzerland’s neighbor, Germany, is also making strides in tokenization, with its tokenized securities market experiencing rapid growth.

In a year leading up to the end of 2023, the volume of issued tokenized securities increased from €31 million (around $34 million) to approximately €183 million (around $199 million). The market further surged to €615 million ($671 million) in the second half of 2024 alone. This growth shows the increasing adoption and acceptance of digital assets in Germany.

On March 11, 21X, a licensed DLT trading and settlement system, and Cashlink Technologies, an infrastructure provider for tokenized securities, created a regulatory-compliant ecosystem for tokenized securities in Germany, starting on the Polygon blockchain.

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