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Tether is emerging as one of the most aggressive buyers of gold in the world, rivaling and in some quarters even surpassing central banks.
This comes at a time when the cryptocurrency company is gradually converting stablecoin profits into physical gold on a sovereign scale.
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Central banks are no longer the biggest buyers with Tether converting stablecoin returns into gold on a sovereign scale.
In the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2025 only, He said The stablecoin issuer added about 27 metric tons of gold to its reserves. This rate of accumulation puts Tether among the world’s biggest buyers during that period.
Tether purchases in the fourth quarter are generally in line with purchases in the third quarter, with analysts estimating around 26 tons. In a report published at the end of November, BeInCrypto noted that Tether has outperformed all central banks, with… Collect 116 tons of gold in 2025.
With final central bank data still pending, Matt Hogan, IT director at Bitwise, said the company could be ranked among the top three global buyers during the quarter.
“Who is the central bank now? Tether bought more gold than any central bank in the third quarter of 2025, according to official data. It will be close in the fourth quarter – we are still waiting for the final data – but the company will be in the first three.” books Hogan in X.
The volume of purchases attracts attention Gold prices are rising. The price of spot gold rose by 18% over the past year and also a 64% increase in 2025. In this, it broke the successive psychological limits of $3,000, $4,000 and $5,000 per ounce.
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Tether purchases, currently worth around $4.4 billion, have made a significant source of marginal demand in… Really tight market.
However, unlike sovereign buyers, Tether’s gold accumulation is not driven by monetary policy or balance of payments considerations.
The company finances its purchases mainly using USDT support profits, Stable currency pegged to the dollarfrom interest-bearing assets such as US Treasury bills.
With approximately $187 billion of USDT in circulation, this performance has become a powerful driver of asset accumulation.
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From a stablecoin issuer to a sovereign scale gold holder
This effectively turned Tether into a hybrid entity:
- Source of a share of stablecoins
- Part asset manager, and
- Become a more efficient gold hoarder.
The reserve’s third-quarter disclosure showed $12.9 billion in gold holdings at the end of September – the equivalent of about 104 tonnes at the time. However, gold only makes up 7% of the USDT’s backing, with US Treasuries dominating the reserve mix.
The Tether Gold strategy is closely related With its gold coded product XAUT. XAUT now represents about 60% of the global gold-backed stablecoin market, which will grow from about $1.3 billion to more than $4 billion in 2025, the company said.
As of December 31, Tether held 520,089 ounces of fine gold to support XAUT on a strict 1:1 basis. The reserves are stored in Swiss vaults in accordance with London Good Decision standards.
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He said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, said in a statement: “We are working on a scale that now puts the Tether Gold Fund alongside sovereign gold holders, and this is a real responsibility.”
He added that XAUT is designed to “remove uncertainty at a time when confidence in monetary systems is weakening.”
By comparison, the Polish Central Bank, the most active buyer in the official sector that reports its activity, added 35 tons of gold in the fourth quarter, bringing its total reserves to 550 tons.
That a private company now operates in the same league highlights a wider change. As stablecoins expand, they become a structurally new source of demand for gold, operating in parallel and increasingly competing with nation-states.
The biggest question facing the markets right now is not just how much gold Tether will buy next. Rather, this is what it means when the private issuers of the digital dollar begin to establish their own rules for financial credibility.
