Tether Gold supply surges, outpacing USDT

Tether is seeing rapid growth in its gold-backed token business, with Tether Gold (XAUT) supply expanding far faster than USDT in the fourth quarter. An attestation report from BDO Italia shows 375,000 XAUT were in circulation as of Dec. 31, up 38% in three months, while USDT’s market cap rose just 7% to $187 billion. During Q4 alone, Tether sold about 173,400 XAUT — roughly $882 million worth of gold exposure — as gold prices climbed to a record above $5,100 per ounce.

CEO Paolo Ardoino said XAUT was designed to meet demand for hard-asset hedges as confidence in monetary systems weakens. The token is backed by physical gold stored in Swiss vaults and now carries a market value of around $2.64 billion, up sharply from a year ago and placing it among the top 50 digital assets by market cap.

XAUT competes with Paxos’ PAX Gold but has quickly become a leader in the tokenized gold sector. Tether is also promoting gold for payments through a new unit of account called “Scudo,” equal to 1/1,000 of a troy ounce of gold.

However, BDO’s reports are attestations rather than full financial audits — a long-running point of scrutiny from regulators and critics. Tether has also announced plans to launch USAT, a U.S.-regulated stablecoin backed by cash and U.S. Treasuries. Meanwhile, prediction markets continue to lean toward further upside for gold prices.