Arch Lending, the alternative-asset lending platform operated by ChainFi, Inc., said on September 1 that it has begun accepting PAX Gold and Tether Gold as collateral at starting loan-to-value ratios of up to 75%, opening credit access to a class of investors that has largely sat outside digital-asset lending. The expansion, detailed in a company release, makes the platform the first institutional-grade lender to bring tokenized-gold borrowing into a regulated, custodial structure rather than a decentralized protocol.
Borrowing Against Gold Is Already Happening
Demand for credit against tokenized gold is documented rather than theoretical. On January 29, 2026, Aave governance data showed $24.99 million in outstanding debt against a $25 million isolated debt ceiling for Tether Gold, effectively full utilization, with the ceiling raised repeatedly as borrowing continued to fill capacity. That activity ran on a decentralized protocol at variable rates, without fiat funding or a regulated custodian. Arch Lending offers the same underlying trade through fixed 12-month terms, funding in dollars or USDC, and collateral custodied by Anchorage Digital, a federally chartered bank.
Terms and Collateral Details
PAX Gold, issued by Paxos Trust Company, represents one fine troy ounce of gold from an LBMA-accredited London Good Delivery bar held in Brink’s vaults, while Tether Gold, issued by TG Commodities Limited, represents one troy ounce from a London Good Delivery bar held in Swiss custody. Loans start at $250,000 with 12-month terms; monthly-payment rates begin at 9.25% APR between $250,000 and $750,000 and fall to 7.25% APR above $5 million. The two tokens anchor a category that generated $90.7 billion in spot trading volume in the first quarter of 2026, according to CoinGecko, surpassing the $84.64 billion recorded across all of 2025, an acceleration BlockchainReporter documented when the figure first surfaced.
A New Class of Borrower
Arch Lending is targeting gold investors, wealth advisors, commodities traders, family offices, and corporate treasuries with existing precious-metals allocations. “We’re seeing real demand from advisors and family offices with a gold sleeve who have never borrowed against it, because the process was slow and usually ended in a sale,” said Himanshu Sahay, Co-Founder and CTO of Arch Lending. “Tokenization fixed the plumbing. Credit is the part that makes it worth doing.” PAXG and XAUT now sit alongside Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP in the collateral set, extending a pattern in which institutional crypto lenders such as Ethena have paired with Anchorage Digital to strengthen their credit infrastructure.
