Tether, the company behind the world’s largest stablecoin USDT, is exploring deeper exposure to gold by investing directly across the metal’s global supply chain.
Key Takeaways:
Tether is expanding its gold strategy with investments across mining, refining, and trading. The company has already poured over $200 million into gold royalty firm Elemental Altus. CEO Paolo Ardoino views gold as a natural complement to Bitcoin, calling it “our source of nature.”Tether has held talks with multiple mining and investment groups to back ventures spanning extraction, refining, trading, and royalty finance, the Financial Times reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The company already holds $8.7 billion in gold reserves stored in Zurich, used as partial backing for its tokens, but now appears to be eyeing physical gold investments on a much larger scale.
Tether CEO Calls Gold “Our Source of Nature”
Tether’s CEO Paolo Ardoino has publicly praised gold as a foundational store of value, going as far as calling it “our source of nature.”
In a May speech, he said: “I know people think that bitcoin is ‘digital gold.’ I prefer to think in Bitcoin terms — I think gold is our source of nature.”
The company has made initial moves in the space. In June, Tether Investments acquired a $105 million stake in Elemental Altus, a Toronto-listed gold royalty firm.
Just last week, it followed up with an additional $100 million investment, timed with Elemental’s merger with rival EMX.
According to Juan Sartori, head of business initiatives at Tether, the goal is to build out a broader “gold exposure” strategy.
Tether’s interest has raised eyebrows among gold insiders. “They like gold. I don’t think they have a strategy,” said one mining executive. Another commodity veteran called Tether “the weirdest company I have ever dealt with.”
Talks were also held with Terranova Resources, a British Virgin Islands-based gold vehicle, though those negotiations did not lead to a deal.
Tether runs XAUt, a token backed by physical gold, but it remains a niche product with a market cap under $900 million, far from USDT’s dominant $168 billion.
The company also operates a growing commodity trade finance book, issuing short-term loans for bulk raw material shipments.
As digital assets continue to merge with traditional commodities, Tether’s gold ambitions signal a broader effort to blend blockchain-based finance with hard-asset backing.
Trump-Backed GENIUS Act Boosts US Push for Dollar-Pegged Stablecoins
The recent passage of the GENIUS Act, signed by President Trump, aims to cement the dollar’s dominance by backing dollar-pegged stablecoins in global markets.
The Treasury Department expects the stablecoin market to exceed $2 trillion by 2028, a projection that places greater emphasis on liquidity, interoperability, and regulatory alignment across the ecosystem. Tether’s latest move underscores a pragmatic shift toward that future.
As reported, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has said the stablecoin sector is poised for explosive growth, projecting the market could balloon from its current $250 billion capitalization to as much as $2 trillion in the near future.
“Many people think it will reach $1 to $2 trillion in a handful of years,” Garlinghouse said, adding that Ripple is positioned to benefit from that trajectory.
Meanwhile, Western Union is positioning itself for a new phase of digital transformation, signaling strong interest in using stablecoins to modernize its global remittance operations.
CEO Devin McGranahan has outlined how stablecoins could streamline cross-border transfers, improve currency conversion in underserved markets, and provide financial tools for populations grappling with unstable local currencies.
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