Bridgetower tokenizes $11B copper-gold project on Avalanche, eyes $25B pipeline
The AZX1 token represents one of the largest commodity-backed tokenization efforts to date, with Chainlink providing compliance infrastructure
Bridgetower just turned an $11 billion copper-gold mine into a token. The company’s platform tokenized the DOM X Arizona Copper-Gold Project on Avalanche’s C-Chain, issuing a security token called AZX1 that gives institutional investors exposure to one of the largest commodity-backed digital assets ever created.
Bridgetower has a $25 billion pipeline targeting natural resources, energy, and metals, which means the Arizona project is less a standalone experiment and more the first domino in an ambitious tokenization strategy.
What Bridgetower actually built
The current distributed value of AZX1 sits in the hundreds of millions, according to on-chain data, which aligns with how these structured products typically roll out in tranches rather than all at once.
Bridgetower chose Avalanche’s C-Chain as the settlement layer, which is the EVM-compatible chain that handles smart contracts. Chainlink plays a critical supporting role here, providing Proof of Reserve verification and daily NAV (net asset value) data feeds. The AZX1 token contract lives at 0x3a72f3b5a6fa1cdf30f3820c58987c25bc947698 on Avalanche C-Chain.
Why commodity tokenization matters right now
Bridgetower isn’t operating in a vacuum. The real-world asset tokenization sector has been one of the fastest-growing segments in crypto, with major financial institutions from BlackRock to Franklin Templeton launching their own tokenized products. Most institutional RWA activity has concentrated on treasuries and money market funds. Commodity-backed tokens at this scale represent a meaningfully different risk and return profile.
The $25 billion pipeline Bridgetower is targeting includes cash-generating assets across natural resources, energy, and metals. This also isn’t Bridgetower’s first collaboration with Avalanche. The company previously launched institutional staking reward products on the network.
What this means for investors
The compliance framework Bridgetower built with Chainlink’s tools addresses some concerns around verification, but tokenized mining projects remain a relatively untested asset class. Investors watching this space should pay close attention to how AZX1’s distributed value tracks against its NAV data feeds over time, because that spread will reveal how much the market actually trusts the verification infrastructure underpinning the token.