Gold Hits Record High as Tether Reports Gold-Backed Token Is Growing Faster Than USDT

In brief

• Tether Gold’s supply is growing at a faster rate than USDT.
• The stablecoin issuer sold $882 million worth of gold-backed tokens in Q4.
• The company’s flagship stablecoin is partly backed by precious metals.

Tether’s legacy was built around the U.S. dollar, but an attestation report published by the stablecoin issuer on Monday underscored a recent shift in momentum toward gold—with the report coming right as gold hit a new all-time high above $5,100. As of Dec. 31, the company had minted 375,000 Tether Gold (XAUT) tokens, a 38% increase compared to three months ago, according to a report from accounting firm BDO Italia. Meanwhile, USDT’s market cap grew 7% to $187 billion, according to CoinGecko. That means XAUT’s supply grew at five times the rate of Tether’s leading product in the fourth quarter, as investors sought exposure to the precious metal, which surged past the $5,000 per ounce mark for the first time ever this weekend. 

In a press release, Tether CEO Paulo Ardoino said XAUT was designed to “remove ambiguity at a time when confidence in monetary systems is weakening,” hinting at a so-called debasement trade rooted in fears of ballooning government debt burdens and persistent inflation. Tether’s XAUT is backed by gold that’s physically held in Swiss vaults, and it was valued at $2.64 billion on Monday, according to CoinGecko. A year ago, the digital asset’s value stood at $677 million, but it has since become the 50th largest cryptocurrency by market cap. XAUT faces competition from PAX Gold, a $2 billion product that was introduced by stablecoin issuer Paxos in September 2019. Although Tether’s alternative debuted a few months later, the stablecoin incumbent has also established a leadership position in tokenized gold. The precious metal has been regarded as a store of value for thousands of years, but Tether has tried to promote its use as a means of payments recently. Earlier this month, it coined the term “Scudo” to represent 1/1,000th of a troy ounce of gold and its Tether Gold token.

BDO Italia’s report showed that Tether sold around 173,400 XAUT in the fourth quarter, more than three times the amount that it had sold over the previous six months. Today, 173,400 XAUT equates to $882 million worth of gold exposure. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has argued that stablecoin-driven demand for U.S. Treasuries has the potential to bring down government borrowing costs, but Tether’s snapshot suggests that alternative assets like gold are also being embraced by issuers. In September, Tether said it plans to launch USAT, a U.S.-regulated stablecoin that’s designed to comply with the GENIUS Act. The regulatory framework was signed into U.S. law this summer, and it requires that stablecoins are backed by cash and U.S. Treasuries. BDO Italia’s attestations for Tether are distinct from a full financial audit, a point of contention that critics and regulators have highlighted for years. In July, Ardoino affirmed to Decrypt that the company intends to undergo a full audit in the future. As of Sept. 30, a report from BDO Italia indicated that $12.9 billion worth of precious metals, namely gold bars, helped back $181 billion worth of “fiat-denominated Tether tokens.” JPMorgan analysts suggested nearly a year ago that Tether may have to sell the gold for compliance purposes. Gold was worth around $2,950 per ounce then. Users on Myriad—a prediction market operated by Decrypt’s parent company, Dastan—remain bullish on gold’s continued rise, penciling in a nearly 57% likelihood that the price of the precious metal will rise to $5,400 rather than fall to $4,700.