Author: Nancy, PANews
Gold is going crazy. In less than a month since the start of the year, various funds have been frantically buying, pushing gold prices to repeatedly hit new historical highs.
Amid this precious metal狂欢盛宴, an "invisible big player" has unexpectedly come into view: stablecoin giant Tether has quietly accumulated 140 tons of gold reserves.
Holding 140 Tons of Gold, Aiming to Become the World's Largest Gold Central Bank
Tether, which 'has mines at home,' is becoming a major player in the gold market.
"We will soon become one of the world's largest 'gold central banks,' so to speak." Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino recently stated unabashedly in an interview with Bloomberg.
This is not just talk. To date, Tether has accumulated approximately 140 tons of physical gold, worth about $23 billion at current prices. Typically, Tether purchases directly from Swiss refineries and top global financial institutions, with large metal orders often taking months to deliver. Upon arrival, the gold is stored in a nuclear bunker built during the Cold War in Switzerland, protected by multiple layers of heavy steel doors, and Switzerland boasts one of the world's top confidentiality systems.
In terms of scale, Tether has become the largest known holder of physical gold outside the banking systems and nations, ranking among the top 30 global gold holders, with holdings exceeding those of countries like Greece, Qatar, and Australia.
Although Tether began布局 gold assets many years ago, its large-scale entry真正 occurred in 2025. Last year alone, Tether purchased over 70 tons of gold, becoming one of the top three buyers of gold globally this year. Its procurement scale not only surpassed that of almost all single central banks except the Polish central bank but also exceeded that of many large gold ETFs.
It can be said that Tether is also a significant driver behind this year's rise in gold prices.
According to Ardoino, Tether's current gold procurement rate is about 1 to 2 tons per week, and it plans to maintain this pace in the coming months, "maybe slowing down, but we will assess gold demand quarterly."
But Tether's ambitions go beyond just hoarding gold. In the Bloomberg interview, Ardoino stated that Tether is evaluating the market and potential trading strategies, planning to actively trade its gold reserves to capture arbitrage opportunities. Simultaneously, the company is working on building "the world's best gold trading floor," aiming to establish stable, long-term channels for gold acquisition and compete with large banks like JPMorgan Chase and HSBC that dominate the global precious metals market.
To this end, Tether last year prominently brought on two heavyweight trading veterans: former HSBC global head of metals trading Vincent Domien, and former head of precious metals procurement for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, Mathew O’Neill, specifically负责 expanding its gold business landscape. (Related reading: Tether's Gold Empire: The Ambition and Cracks of a 'Borderless Central Bank')
Upstream in the industry chain, Tether has also begun using its financial muscle to secure positions. Tether has successively invested in several Canadian mid-tier gold mining royalty companies, including Elemental Royalty, Metalla Royalty & Streaming, Versamet Royalties, and Gold Royalty, locking in future production capacity and revenue sharing through equity investments.
At the financial product level, Tether launched the gold-pegged stablecoin Tether Gold (XAU₮) as early as 2020. As of the end of last year, this token was backed by 16.2 tons of physical gold. Not long ago, Tether also introduced a new unit of account for XAU₮ called Scudo, where 1 Scudo represents one-thousandth of a troy ounce of gold, aiming to make gold a more usable form of payment.
CoinGecko data shows that as of January 28, the circulating market value of XAU₮ had reached $2.7 billion, growing about 91.3% over the past year, capturing 49.5% of the tokenized gold track market share, firmly holding the top position.
From physical gold hoarding to industry chain布局, to financial product innovation, the large-scale investments by this gold enthusiast have even left traditional commodity圈 insiders baffled, with some形容 Tether as "the strangest company they have ever encountered."
But now, as gold prices continue to刷新历史 highs, Tether's bet is yielding惊人的 returns.
Earning $15 Billion Annually, Building a Capital Arsenal
The confidence behind Tether's疯狂囤积 gold comes from a high-speed运转的 "money printing machine."
According to a Fortune report, Tether generated approximately $15 billion in net profit in 2025, a significant increase from the previous year's $13 billion. This百亿 profit is supported by a global workforce of only about 200 people. Roughly calculated, the per capita profit is as high as $75 million, an efficiency level that leaves traditional financial giants in the dust.
The core of this profitability comes from the capital pool沉淀 by its stablecoin business.
Today, the US dollar stablecoin USDT issued by Tether is the most widely used stablecoin globally, with over 500 million users. CoinGecko data shows that as of January 28, 2026, the circulation of USDT issued by Tether was接近 $1870 billion, firmly holding the top spot in the stablecoin赛道. Trading activity is同样领先; Artemis Analytics data shows that in 2025, total stablecoin transaction volume grew 72% to $33 trillion, with USDT contributing $13.3 trillion, accounting for over 33%.
Building on this, Tether is further expanding the scale of its capital沉淀 through合规化.
On January 27, Tether officially launched USAT, a stablecoin regulated by the U.S. federal government. It is issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, the first federally regulated stablecoin issuer in the U.S., with Cantor Fitzgerald serving as the designated reserve custodian and preferred primary dealer, and former White House advisor Bo Hines appointed as CEO. This is seen as a key step for Tether's full-scale entry into the U.S. domestic market.
Simultaneously, leveraging its investments in content platforms like Rumble, Tether is attempting to integrate USAT business into the traffic ecosystem, thereby quickly reaching 100 million U.S. users, with a target of a $1 trillion market cap within five years. If progress is smooth, USAT could become the first真正意义上的 competitor to USDC in the U.S. market.
After obtaining an almost zero-cost liability side, Tether easily套取 interest rate differentials by allocating high-liquidity, low-risk assets.
Among these, U.S. Treasury interest is the core source of Tether's收益. In a high-interest rate cycle, U.S. Treasury interest directly amplifies Tether's profitability. Currently, Tether holds approximately $1350 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds, exceeding the holdings of sovereign nations like South Korea and making it the 17th largest holder of U.S. Treasury bonds globally.
Additionally, Tether is also a super player in Bitcoin. Since 2023, Tether has allocated up to 15% of its monthly net profit to定期 Bitcoin. Its current holdings exceed 96,000 BTC, making it one of the largest institutional holders of Bitcoin globally, with an average cost of about $51,000, far below the current market price.围绕 the Bitcoin ecosystem, Tether has also built its own mining farms, invested in mining companies, and布局 DAT (Crypto Treasury), continuously expanding its industry influence, and has一度 been the subject of overseas conspiracy theories about being a "BTC隐形操盘手." (Related reading: Caught in BTC隐形操盘手 Conspiracy Theories? Unveiling the Full Picture of Tether's Bitcoin Strategy)
Furthermore, to leverage more potential收益, Tether has开启了大撒币 mode over the past few years, extending its investment触角 to areas such as satellite communications, AI data centers, agriculture, telecommunications, and media.
Thus, an arbitrage machine spanning traditional finance and the crypto world has gradually taken shape, continuously supplying Tether with capital ammunition, becoming the chips for its large-scale bets.
