Tether Ltd., the firm that issues the world’s largest stablecoin USDT with a market capitalization of more than $4.6 billion, recently announced the launch of a new product, called Tether Gold (XAU₮), which will provide the “security of a digital asset pegged to physical gold” (XAU).
Tether’s management noted in a blog post:
“Building on a track record for product innovation, each XAU₮ token represents ownership of one troy fine ounce of physical gold on a specific gold bar.”
The gold is said to be owned by TG Commodities Limited, a UK-licensed firm that specializes in a wide range of precious metals. The company is managed in part by Parduman K Gupta, whose family is among UK’s largest private landowners.
Tether further mentioned that the XAU₮ has been issued as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain network and also as a TRC-20 crypto token on the TRON network. The gold-backed cryptocurrency may be transferred to any supported on-chain address from the purchasers’ Tether (USDT) wallet.
Tether Gold (XAU₮) is reportedly the only product in the crypto-asset market that does not charge custody fees. It also maintains “direct control over the physical gold storage,” which resides securely in a vault located in Switzerland.
Tether’s management says that the vault uses best in class security and appropriate anti-threat measures. XAU₮ is supported by a 24-hour dedicated customer support team. Cryptocurrency exchanges that want to begin listing XAU₮ may contact Tether’s support team (support@tether.to).
Tether has previously experienced challenges when trying to support its claims that its stablecoins are actually one-to-one backed by its reserves. In October of last year, Tether Ltd. had claimed that its USD-pegged stablecoins were “fully backed” by USD cash equivalents, but then the firm later stated that they were only 74% backed by the USD.
