This week, Tether Investments announced a strategic investment in Gold.com, acquiring a minority ownership position and establishing a long-term collaboration to expand access to gold across digital and traditional distribution channels.
As part of this investment, Tether has acquired approximately 12% of Gold.com in a $150 million transaction, establishing a partnership that will integrate Tether’s gold-backed digital asset, XAU₮, into Gold.com’s platform and support broader collaboration on global distribution. The companies are also exploring options to enable customers to purchase physical gold using digital currencies such as USD₮, the world’s largest stablecoin, and USA₮, the newly launched, federally regulated, dollar-backed stablecoin. This is subject to regulatory, technical, and commercial considerations.
The announcement comes amid renewed momentum in global gold markets, with prices surpassing $5,000 per ounce in recent days, reinforcing gold’s role as a store of value amid heightened macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty.
The gold-backed stablecoin market quadrupled in the last 12 months, growing from roughly $1.3 billion to more than $5.5 billion, driven by record gold prices and rising demand for on-chain safe-haven assets. XAU₮ accounts for more than 60% of the global gold-stablecoin market cap. As asset managers and sovereign participants increasingly adopt blockchain-based issuance and custody, tokenized gold is emerging as a core real-world asset.
Tether Gold offers 1:1 physical backing, daily transparency, and regulated issuance under El Salvador’s Digital Asset Issuance Law, supported by approximately 140 tonnes of gold. The investment follows Tether’s latest independent attestation, which confirms that XAU₮ remains fully backed by allocated physical gold held in secure vaults, with each token representing one fine troy ounce of gold linked to a specific London Good Delivery bar.
Tether said the investment reflects its continued focus on building durable financial infrastructure that performs across market cycles and geopolitical environments. Rather than viewing gold as a short-term trade or speculative asset, Tether treats it as a long-term allocation for users seeking stability, optionality, and capital preservation.
It also builds on XAU₮, which is backed by physical gold held in secure vaults and allows users to hold, transfer, and redeem gold digitally while maintaining direct ownership. By integrating XAU₮ into an established precious metals platform, Tether is extending tokenized gold beyond crypto-native markets and into real-world commerce.
“Gold has played a central role in preserving value for centuries, particularly during periods of monetary stress and geopolitical uncertainty,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether. “Our investment in Gold.com reflects a long-term belief that gold should be as accessible, transferable, and usable as modern digital money, without compromising on physical backing or ownership. Gold exposure is not a trade for Tether; it is a hedge and a long-term allocation to protect our user base and ourselves in a world that is becoming increasingly unstable. XAU₮ was built with that principle in mind, combining the resilience of gold with the efficiency of blockchain-based settlement.”