Tether ramps up tokenized gold strategy with $150 million Gold.com investment
Tether has stepped up its push into tokenized commodities by committing $150 million to Gold.com, securing a minority stake of around 12% in the long-standing precious metals company. The move is designed to reinforce the role of XAU₮, Tether’s gold-backed digital asset, while broadening global access to both tokenized and physical gold.
The capital injection is part of a wider strategy in which Tether is positioning gold as a bridge between traditional stores of value and modern digital finance. XAU₮ is pegged to physical gold held in reserve and has emerged as one of the leading tokenized gold stablecoins by market share. By aligning with a major physical bullion and collectibles platform, Tether aims to add depth, liquidity, and credibility to its gold offering on a worldwide scale.
As a core element of the deal, Gold.com has agreed to redeploy $20 million of the investment into XAU₮. This reciprocal commitment ties the fortunes of both companies more closely together: Tether gains a larger, more engaged holder of its gold token, while Gold.com gains direct exposure to the digital asset it now has a strategic interest in supporting and promoting.
Tether’s chief executive Paolo Ardoino framed the move as a long-term bet on the convergence of gold and digital money. According to Ardoino, the guiding idea is that gold should become as easy to transfer, trade, and use as any modern digital currency, but without sacrificing the assurance of physical backing and verifiable ownership. That vision places tokenized gold at the intersection of conservative wealth preservation and agile, programmable finance.
Parallel to the corporate investment, Tether has quietly become one of the more significant private holders of bullion. The company has been purchasing more than a ton of gold per week, storing it in secure vaults in Switzerland. Its reserves now total around 140 metric tons of physical gold, with an estimated value close to $23 billion. These holdings support both XAU₮ and other gold‑related products, underscoring Tether’s shift from purely fiat-backed stablecoins into a broader portfolio of asset-backed instruments.
Under the terms of the agreement, Tether will acquire approximately 3.37 million common shares of Gold.com at a discount to recent market prices. The transaction also grants Tether the right to nominate a member to the Gold.com board of directors, giving it a direct say in strategic decisions and facilitating tighter coordination between the two businesses as they develop joint products and services.
Looking ahead, Tether and Gold.com intend to explore a range of commercial integrations. Among the options on the table are promoting Tether stablecoins directly within Gold.com’s ecosystem and enabling customers to purchase gold using Tether-issued digital currencies such as USD₮ and USA₮. Such functionalities would effectively turn Gold.com into a gateway for users who wish to move fluidly between stablecoins and physical precious metals.
Gold.com itself brings a deep legacy in the precious metals market. Founded in 1965, the company has evolved into a vertically integrated platform for alternative assets, offering bullion, numismatic coins, and various collectibles. It operates across the United States and in international markets, combining retail distribution, institutional relationships, and specialist expertise in metal sourcing and storage.
Greg Roberts, CEO of Gold.com, described the investment as a turning point for the company. He emphasized that the partnership builds on Gold.com’s more than six decades of history while pushing it beyond the traditional bullion trade into the realm of digital gold and stablecoins. The fresh capital, he noted, will be used to strengthen product offerings, upgrade infrastructure, and drive innovation at the intersection of physical metals and blockchain technology.
This deal is part of a broader, accelerating trend: the tokenization of real-world assets. Investors, platforms, and issuers are increasingly experimenting with ways to wrap physical commodities—such as gold—into blockchain-based tokens that can be traded 24/7, integrated into decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, and settled nearly instantly across borders. Tether’s expanded commitment signals confidence that tokenized metals can move from a niche product to a mainstream asset class.
Beyond strengthening XAU₮, the partnership has implications for how ordinary investors access gold. Traditionally, exposure to gold meant buying bars or coins, using futures contracts, or holding shares in exchange-traded funds. Tokenized gold adds another layer: small, divisible units that represent ownership in allocated bullion, which can be transferred as simply as sending any other cryptocurrency. Integrating that model into a large retail-facing metals platform could lower barriers for newcomers who want both on-chain efficiency and the reassurance of real, vaulted metal.
For Tether, the alignment with a long-established metals dealer provides an additional reputational anchor. Stablecoin issuers have often faced scrutiny regarding reserve quality and transparency. By visibly associating XAU₮ with a recognized precious metals business and by publicly disclosing substantial bullion holdings in Swiss vaults, Tether is attempting to address concerns about backing and to differentiate its gold token from less transparent competitors.
Gold.com, in turn, stands to benefit from tapping into the digital asset audience that already uses Tether products. Offering gold purchases denominated in USD₮ or USA₮ could attract a global base of crypto-native users who prefer to transact in stablecoins rather than traditional bank rails. This may be especially relevant in regions where access to metals dealers is limited, or where local currencies are volatile and cross-border transfers are costly and slow.
The collaboration also hints at future product innovation. Once gold is fully integrated into a tokenized framework, it becomes easier to imagine new financial instruments: interest-bearing gold accounts, lending markets where gold tokens serve as collateral, or structured products that combine fiat-backed stablecoins and gold-backed tokens in a single portfolio. While not all of these use cases will materialize immediately, the infrastructure built through partnerships like this one lays the groundwork.
Another important dimension is risk management and diversification. For many holders of stablecoins, exposure is concentrated in assets pegged to a single fiat currency, typically the U.S. dollar. Tokenized gold provides a different profile: its value tends to move differently from fiat, especially in times of inflation or macroeconomic stress. Tether’s expanded gold strategy can therefore be seen as an effort to offer users more tools to hedge currency risk while staying within the digital asset ecosystem.
On the regulatory and institutional side, deals involving tokenized gold may accelerate discussions among policymakers and traditional financial institutions. As more recognizable names in the metals and payments industries join forces, regulators will increasingly confront questions about custody standards, audit procedures, and consumer protection in the context of asset-backed tokens. Companies like Tether and Gold.com will likely need to engage proactively with these frameworks to ensure that tokenized gold becomes a durable and compliant part of global finance.
Finally, the partnership highlights a key narrative shaping the future of money: the blending of centuries-old stores of value with programmable, internet-native infrastructure. By linking one of the largest stablecoin issuers with a veteran precious metals platform, the deal underscores a simple but powerful bet—that investors will continue to seek the security of gold, but will increasingly demand the speed, divisibility, and interoperability that only digital formats can provide.