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In 1964, "Goldfinger," the third film about the British Empire hero James Bond, was released. The idea of ​​the film's villain, Auric Goldfinger, an eccentric gold smuggler played by an excellent German actor named Gert Fröbe, was very simple and extremely audacious. He planned to detonate a small nuclear device in the vault of Fort Knox, thereby rendering all the gold hoarded by the United States there—which represented a very large percentage of the world's gold reserves—radioactive and therefore useless. This would greatly reduce the global gold supply, and all the gold this criminal had accumulated, which was also a lot, would increase in value disproportionately, shaking the global economic ecosystem. Fortunately, as expected, our hero, played on that occasion by Sean Connery, thwarted this diabolical plan. James Bond, with just three films, was already shaping up to be what it is today: the most successful franchise in world cinema, with 25 films over more than 60 years, and still looking to continue growing.

For several years now, I've systematically bought some XAUT, one of the gold-backed coins, every month. There are a dozen of them, but XAUT is the one I find most attractive. Now, what will happen to gold and the crypto ecosystem in general when the inevitable nuclear holocaust, driven by our beloved leaders, occurs?

Let me first talk a little about XAUT, and then we'll get into the war.

Gold-backed cryptocurrencies are on-chain assets secured by physical gold reserves, held by their issuers or authorized third-party custodians. Tether Gold (XAUT) and Pax Gold (PAXG) are the leading cryptocurrencies in the sector, accounting for about three-quarters of the total market capitalization in this niche. Gold-backed cryptocurrencies allow gold ownership to be converted into a more flexible and liquid form for on-chain use in, for example, decentralized financial applications (DeFi). Gold is an excellent backing for a digital asset, as it enjoys global acceptance. When financial assets such as stocks and bonds fall, gold tends to rise, as investors seek refuge in this global asset. At the time of writing, October 16, 2025, a troy ounce of gold is trading above $4,200, a new record, having accumulated 50% growth so far this year, a clear sign of global investor distrust of financial markets. Trump's bravado shows its dark side. However, there is a temporary drawback to these cryptocurrencies: the lack of unified regulatory mechanisms to ensure that gold reserves actually exist. Therefore, careful due diligence is necessary before purchasing them.

A gold-backed stablecoin represents an innovative convergence of traditional finance and the novel blockchain technology, causing a dramatic disruption in the international financial landscape. By tokenizing physical gold, a gold-backed cryptocurrency democratizes access to this highly valuable asset, enabling fractional ownership and eliminating the typical barriers small investors face when storing physical gold, including paying expensive transaction fees and transport and storage logistics. The security and transparency of blockchain technology appeal to investors of all sizes, especially those looking to save in an asset that doesn't experience significant price fluctuations. In addition to being attractive for diversifying portfolios, a gold-backed cryptocurrency serves as a bridge between conventional and digital assets, enabling the inclusion of small investors in traditional finance.

Tether Gold (XAUt) was launched in 2020 and is currently the most dominant gold-backed cryptocurrency on the market. It was created by Tether Limited Inc., the company behind USDT, the most traded crypto asset in the world. Each XAUt token is backed by one troy ounce of gold, and the physical gold bars are securely stored in underground vaults in Switzerland. A troy ounce is a British Imperial unit of measurement used to measure the weight, and therefore the value, of precious metals. It is equal to 31.1034768 grams, so there are 32.15074657 troy ounces in 1 kg.

XAUt holders can redeem them for physical gold at any time if they have something like 400 troy ounces, which is the weight of one physical gold bar on London Good Delivery. XAUt is an ERC-20 token that runs on the Ethereum blockchain.

Pax Gold (PAXG) was launched in 2019 by the New York-based Paxos Trust Company. Each token is backed by one troy ounce of gold, and the actual bullion is held in vaults at London-based Brinks Security. Like XAUt, it is an ERC-20 token that runs on Ethereum.

Let's move on to more mundane matters.

According to estimates by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Russia has 5,459 nuclear warheads, the United States 5,177, China 600, France 290, the United Kingdom 225, India 180, Pakistan 170, Israel 90, and North Korea 50. I remember that Kim Jong-un, North Korea's top leader, once said he didn't understand what the point of so many nuclear warheads was, if only one was needed.

There are currently two major strategic meta-issues. First, whether or not the United States' hegemony on the planet will end. Second, no one dares to deny that a nuclear holocaust will occur. We just need to know when.

In the first case, Tether Limited Inc. will have to consider a stablecoin backed by the yuan. In the second, the issue is a bit more complex for global economies.

Let's assume just two scenarios.

Scenario 1. Nuclear warheads are directed toward energy sources, power plants, dams, nuclear power plants, and oil and gas fields. In that case, humanity will almost immediately return to prehistory, and all records currently stored on servers will be lost. No matter how protected they are, without electricity, they are useless. It's incredible that a civilization that considers itself very "intelligent" has built its entire superstructure based on a single raw material: electricity. The power outage will render food supply sources, supermarkets, shopping malls, governments, any kind of logistics, and, ultimately, all forms of civilization as we know it, totally useless. Survivors will surely gradually organize themselves into small, anarchic rural communities. But we'll leave that for a future post. The truth is that, in the face of an electrical catastrophe, no cryptocurrency will make sense, because distributed protocols run on electrical structures. They'll tell me they have emergency power generators. Sure, but where will they go to buy the diesel to power those generators? The world depends totally and exclusively on electricity. When the mass media of disinformation goes silent due to the power outage, the widespread panic will be atrocious. Looting will begin, and mass exoduses to the countryside in search of food. But only those who know how to hunt prey, how to butcher it, how to cook it, and how to repeat the process every day will be fed. They will also have to think about how to obtain clean water and how to avoid diseases caused by improperly processing excrement.

Scenario 2. The high self-esteem of our adorable leaders, democratically elected by voters educated through video games, artificial intelligence, Twitter (sorry, I'll never call it X), and TikTok, leads to the decision to destroy the big cities first. Imagine Trump's premature ejaculation wiping Moscow off the map, and Putin's wiping out Washington DC. Imagine Israel's jubilation wiping Tehran off the map, and India's wiping out Islamabad. But by doing so, they lose a move, and that, as in chess, can mean the difference between winning and losing the game. If the sources of electricity generation are not eliminated from the start, it will be too late later, and they will not be able to do it, because the chain of decisions that depend on the existence of large cities full of useless bureaucrats will have been cut, who will be more afraid than Little Red Riding Hood alone in the woods. In this case, it's to be expected that decentralized cryptocurrency networks will continue to function, albeit in a very precarious manner. Well, if this scenario 2 materializes, there will be no more room for cryptocurrencies backed by puppies and frogs, and only Bitcoin, Ethereum, and some stablecoins will make sense. Which ones? Those backed by dollars? What is a dollar without a government or any type of exchange? This also applies to any promissory note called fiat money.

So, still speaking of this scenario 2, gold becomes very important.

Which gold? Of course, the one that can be used. Used for what? We'll leave this last one out because it's one of the many unanswered questions humanity has faced in its short time on the planet. For the moment, let's focus on what "usable gold" means.

It must be a metal that "someone" can attest to ownership of. Otherwise, the law would be violated. What law? Well, that's another unanswered question. It must be gold that can be moved around, in case it's useful for a transaction. To do that, the vaults would have to be able to be opened and transported, which is possible if there's electricity. The problem will be how to split the bullions to pay for a kilogram of potatoes. And finally, it must be gold that "works," that is, that isn't radioactive, after all the heavenly gifts the places where the wise men on Earth had stored it received.

If someone were to hire Auric Goldfinger now, knowing that James Bond is at an impasse, and that Barbara Broccoli hasn't decided on a new actor for the moment, what the villain would surely recommend is detonating a nuclear device in the vaults where the XAUT gold is housed, in Switzerland, which would be one of the few fractional commodities with which to transact anything, whatever that something is. The fractionability of XAUT makes it a miraculous marvel of economic and financial brain activity, I would say, the best option for exchanging value that humiliated humanity has after seeing how its beloved leaders responded to its commands. Needless to say, Bitcoin and Ether would have such incredible fluctuations that they would only serve as an anecdote.

Conclusion

In any case, in either scenario, we shouldn't worry too much about the exchange of value, since the planet and civilization would disappear very quickly. A legacy of the free-for-all capitalist system.

From urban and industrial areas, more than 5 million tons of soot produced by fires will be released into the atmosphere, causing an average drop in global temperatures, a condition that would last for several years and shorten the growing season in many regions. The lower temperatures would cause a significant decrease in rain and snowfall due to the lower volume of water evaporating from the oceans. Furthermore, there would be a marked reduction in ozone levels in the upper atmosphere, allowing higher levels of harmful ultraviolet rays to reach the Earth's surface.

In other words, we can safely assume that we are on the verge of extinction.

Just in case, I'm buying XAUT.

Thank you for visiting.