---
title: "What Is XAUUSD? Gold Quote and the XAUTUSD Perpetual"
description: "What is XAUUSD? It's the gold-to-dollar price quote used by forex brokers. See how it differs from XAUTUSD, EVEDEX's Tether Gold perpetual contract."
url: "https://evedex.com/en/blog/what-is-xauusd/"
lang: "en"
author: "Elizaveta Bakradze"
date_published: "2026-09-21"
date_modified: "2026-09-21"
---

# What Is XAUUSD? Gold Quote and the XAUTUSD Perpetual

Elizaveta Bakradze · September 21, 2026

Last Updated: September 21, 2026

What is XAUUSD? It's the trading ticker for spot gold quoted in US dollars per troy ounce — not a currency pair, despite trading on forex platforms. On September 21, 2026, gold traded above $4,300 an ounce. EVEDEX, a [multi-asset trading platform](https://evedex.com/en/), doesn't list XAUUSD directly; instead, it lists XAUTUSD, a perpetual contract on the Tether Gold token.

Forex brokers group XAUUSD with currency pairs because it trades on the same platforms and margin logic, but gold is a commodity, and the "XAU" in the ticker is a troy ounce, not a currency. For the mechanics of true currency pairs, see [what is forex trading](https://evedex.com/en/blog/what-is-forex-trading/). EVEDEX's gold market, [gold trading](https://evedex.com/en/gold-trading/), runs on a different underlying than XAUUSD — see [gold trading hours](https://evedex.com/en/blog/gold-trading-hours/) for how the schedules compare, and [XAUUSD pips](https://evedex.com/en/blog/xauusd-pips/) for how a price move converts into money on each. EVEDEX's own forex pairs sit on the [forex trading](https://evedex.com/en/forex-trading/) page.

## What Is XAUUSD? Forex Gold vs. EVEDEX's XAUTUSD

| Feature | XAUUSD (Forex/CFD Broker) | XAUTUSD Perpetual (EVEDEX) |
| - | - | - |
| Underlying reference | Spot gold price, typically derived from interbank and LBMA reference quotes | Tether Gold (XAUT) token price; each token is backed 1:1 by one troy ounce of LBMA Good Delivery gold |
| Contract size | Often 100 troy ounces per standard lot (e.g., Pepperstone's specification); brokers vary | No lots — traded directly in XAUT, in steps of 0.001 XAUT |
| Do you own gold? | No — a cash-settled CFD or margin product, with no physical delivery | No — the perpetual tracks the XAUT price; you don't acquire XAUT tokens or physical gold |
| Trading hours | Roughly 23 hours a day, 5 days a week at most brokers, closed on weekends | 24/7, including weekends, with no scheduled close |
| Overnight cost | Swap or rollover rate, charged once a day and set by the broker | Funding rate reset every 8 hours and debited in one-eighth steps each hour |
| Margin and leverage | Capped for EU retail clients at 20:1 on gold under ESMA rules | Up to 100x, limited to $30,000 notional at that tier; margin posted only in USDT |
| Drawbacks | Cash-settled with no ownership; leverage caps and contract specifications vary sharply by broker and jurisdiction | Not spot gold or the XAUT token itself; one gold market among 52 pairs; margin only in USDT |

*Data as of September 21, 2026. XAUTUSD price and contract terms: EVEDEX trading terms. EU gold leverage cap: [ESMA restriction on CFDs](https://www.esma.europa.eu/press-news/esma-news/esma-renew-restriction-cfds-further-three-months). Tether Gold backing: [gold.tether.to](https://gold.tether.to/).*

![Gold bullion bars stacked with a digital token overlay](https://evedex.com/images/images4articles/240.webp)

## Why XAUUSD Isn't the Same as Owning Gold

Trading XAUUSD at a broker doesn't put gold in a vault with your name on it. It's typically a CFD or a similar margin product: the broker quotes a price derived from the interbank gold market, you post margin, and profit or loss settles in cash when the position closes. No bars, no coins, no allocated storage — the ticker just tracks a number.

That distinction matters for a simple, practical reason: what you're exposed to is the broker's counterparty risk and quoted price, not a claim on a specific bar of metal sitting somewhere in a vault. If a particular broker's price feed lags the wider market during a fast move, or that broker widens spreads sharply around a news release, the trader's actual fill can differ from where "gold" was really trading elsewhere at that same instant. Reading a broker's own contract specification carefully — lot size, margin requirement, and how the reference price is sourced — matters more for XAUUSD than for a listed futures contract with a single, publicly reported settlement price each day.

EVEDEX's XAUTUSD works differently but ends at the same place for the trader: it's a perpetual futures contract that tracks the price of Tether Gold (XAUT), a token where each unit is redeemable 1:1 against a troy ounce of LBMA Good Delivery gold held in Switzerland. Trading the XAUTUSD perpetual doesn't give you XAUT tokens, let alone physical gold — you're trading a derivative on the token's price, matched off-chain and settled on-chain on Arbitrum, the same way EVEDEX handles its other 51 markets.

## From Ounces to Tokens: How XAUTUSD Prices Gold

The chain of reference is: physical gold bar → XAUT token (1:1, per Tether's own documentation) → XAUTUSD perpetual on EVEDEX. That's a different path from XAUUSD, which usually references gold prices directly through interbank and LBMA quotes without an intermediate token.

In practice, the two should track closely, since XAUT is designed to mirror gold's dollar price and arbitrage between token markets and the physical gold market keeps it anchored. On September 21, 2026, EVEDEX's XAUTUSD traded around $4,349, broadly in line with where gold itself was trading — below the $4,608.35 close the London Bullion Market Association recorded for the end of the first quarter of 2026, when gold had spent over 70% of that quarter's auction sessions above $5,000, a reminder that the metal moves in both directions even at historically high levels. The instrument moves in $0.10 price increments and is sized in steps of 0.001 XAUT, with a minimum order of 5 USDT — small enough that the smallest tradable size is a fraction of one troy ounce, not a full lot.

That granularity is the practical advantage of the token-based structure over a lot-based one: a broker's 100-ounce lot convention forces a trader into large, fixed increments unless the broker also offers "mini" or "micro" lots, while a XAUTUSD position can be sized to whatever notional value fits the trader's risk budget, down to a few dollars above the exchange's minimum order. It also means the price move needed to reach a given dollar profit or loss is easy to calculate directly from the position size in XAUT, without converting through lots, pip values or contract multipliers first.

## Trading Gold as XAUTUSD on EVEDEX

EVEDEX lists gold as XAUTUSD, a perpetual contract on Tether Gold matched off-chain and settled on-chain on Arbitrum. Leverage reaches up to 100x, limited to $30,000 notional at that tier and stepping down for larger positions, with maker/taker fees of 0.015% and 0.045% before up to 35% cashback. Margin is posted only in USDT, with a 6 USDT minimum deposit and 5 USDT minimum order. The funding rate resets every 8 hours and is debited in one-eighth steps each hour, applying every day since the market never closes.

On September 21, 2026, XAUTUSD carried $14.38 million in open interest and $9.99 million in 24-hour trading volume, according to CoinMarketCap — smaller than the exchange's largest crypto pairs, and the smallest of EVEDEX's three commodity markets on the same snapshot, next to silver (XAGUSD) at $17.33 million and oil (CLUSD) at $31.58 million of open interest. The contract sits inside the same 52-pair, USDT-margined account as EVEDEX's crypto, forex and stock perpetuals, so a trader holding a BTC-USD or EURUSD position can add gold exposure without moving funds to a separate broker or exchange.

There's no XAUUSD, no physical delivery and no spot gold trading on EVEDEX — only the XAUTUSD perpetual, one of 52 markets on the exchange. Traders who specifically want lot-based XAUUSD, a forex broker's swap structure, or actual ownership of gold bars or coins won't find any of those on EVEDEX; what they'll find instead is a derivative on a fully-backed gold token, traded the same way as everything else on the platform. Perpetual futures carry a high risk of loss.

## FAQ

### What is XAUUSD?

XAUUSD is the ticker for spot gold priced in US dollars, quoting how many dollars one troy ounce of gold costs. Forex and CFD brokers offer it as a cash-settled product, not physical gold. EVEDEX doesn't list XAUUSD; it lists XAUTUSD, a perpetual contract on Tether Gold (XAUT), each token backed 1:1 by a troy ounce.

### What does XAUUSD mean?

XAU is the ISO currency code for one troy ounce of gold, borrowed from the periodic table symbol for the element, and USD is the US dollar. Together, XAUUSD means the number of dollars needed to buy one troy ounce. EVEDEX's related contract, XAUTUSD, prices Tether Gold (XAUT) instead of spot gold directly.

### Is XAUUSD forex?

Not technically, but brokers usually trade it through the same forex platforms and quote conventions, so it's grouped with forex in most trading apps. XAUUSD tracks a commodity, gold, rather than a currency pair. EVEDEX keeps its two real currency pairs, EURUSD and USDJPY, in a separate category from the gold perpetual, XAUTUSD.

### What is XAUUSD in trading?

In trading, XAUUSD is a spot-gold CFD or margin instrument: you speculate on the dollar price of gold without buying bars or coins, using leverage set by the broker. On EVEDEX, the equivalent exposure is XAUTUSD, a perpetual contract on the Tether Gold token, margined in USDT rather than the broker's account currency.

### How to trade XAUUSD?

To trade XAUUSD at a broker, open a margin account, check the contract size in the specification (often 100 troy ounces per lot), and size the position against a stop-loss. To trade the equivalent exposure on EVEDEX, fund a USDT-margined account and open a XAUTUSD position in steps of 0.001 XAUT, with no lots involved.

### Is XAUUSD a CFD?

At most retail brokers, yes — XAUUSD is offered as a contract for difference or a similar margin product settled in cash against the gold price, with no delivery of physical metal. EVEDEX's XAUTUSD is not a CFD; it's a perpetual futures contract on the Tether Gold token, matched off-chain and settled on-chain on Arbitrum.

### What are gold trading hours?

Gold trading hours depend on the venue: COMEX gold futures run Sunday 6pm to Friday 5pm ET with a daily break, most forex brokers quote XAUUSD on a similar weekly schedule, and the London OTC market fixes a reference price twice a day on London business days. EVEDEX's XAUTUSD trades 24/7, including weekends, with no scheduled close.

### What are XAUUSD pips?

A XAUUSD pip is usually defined as a $0.01 or $0.10 move, depending on the broker's contract specification — there's no single universal definition for gold, unlike the fixed 0.0001 convention in most currency pairs. EVEDEX doesn't use pips for XAUTUSD; its price increment is $0.10 per unit, quoted directly in dollars.

### Is gold trading profitable?

Gold trading can be profitable or not, like any leveraged instrument — it depends on entry, position size and costs, not the asset itself. Gold moved from a 2026 Q1 close of $4,608.35 to around $4,349 on EVEDEX's XAUTUSD by September 21, 2026, a reminder that even a high-conviction asset moves both ways. Fees and funding apply regardless of the outcome.

### What is forex trading?

Forex trading is the exchange of one currency for another through a quoted pair, such as EUR/USD, aiming to profit from the rate change. XAUUSD is often grouped with forex pairs on trading platforms, even though gold is a commodity, not a currency. EVEDEX lists two true forex pairs, EURUSD and USDJPY, alongside its gold perpetual, XAUTUSD.