Tether Bets $150M on Gold.com to Scale Gold Tokenization

The investment arm of stablecoin issuer Tether revealed on Thursday a $150 million stake in Gold.com, the online marketplace for gold and other precious metals. The move equates to roughly 12% of Gold.com and lays the groundwork for embedding a tokenized gold layer into the platform’s offerings. In practice, the plan includes integrating Tether Gold into Gold.com’s ecosystem, enabling users to access tokenized gold through a familiar, regulated marketplace. This marks another step in Tether’s broader strategy to blend digital assets with traditional stores of value, while preserving the asset’s backing and recognized value.

Gold.com is a publicly listed online marketplace that sells gold and other precious metals, including silver and platinum, to markets including the United States and beyond. The collaboration will align Gold.com’s catalog with a tokenized gold framework, as developers explore ways for customers to interact with digital gold alongside physical holdings within a familiar shopping experience.

“Gold has played a central role in preserving value for centuries, particularly during periods of monetary stress and geopolitical uncertainty,” said Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s chief executive. “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.” He added that the investment 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.

Key takeaways

Tether’s investment arm is purchasing roughly a 12% stake in Gold.com for about $150 million, with plans to integrate Tether’s gold-backed token into the platform.

The tie-up signals a deeper push to bring tokenized precious metals to mainstream crypto users and traditional gold buyers on a regulated marketplace.

Beyond tokenized gold, the partners are exploring ways for customers to buy physical gold using Tether’s USD-backed stablecoins and related US-market tokens.

The development comes as gold prices surged over the prior year, briefly peaking around $5,600 per ounce before easing to the mid-$4,800s in recent days.

Separately, Tether disclosed a separate $100 million equity investment in Anchorage Digital to support wider USAt adoption, with Anchorage aiming to advance toward a public listing next year.

Tether reported a $10 billion profit in 2025, driven mainly by interest income on its large USDT reserves backing USDt obligations.

Tickers mentioned: $XAUt, $USDT, $USAT

Sentiment: Neutral

Market context: The deal aligns with a broader shift toward tokenized assets and on-chain settlement in the precious metals space, while stability and regulatory considerations continue to influence stablecoin use and cross-asset integrations.

Why it matters

For investors and users, the partnership could lower barriers to accessing gold through a digital wrapper that preserves physical backing while improving liquidity and settlement speed. By embedding a gold-backed token into a widely used marketplace, Gold.com could broaden the audience for tokenized precious metals beyond niche crypto circles into mainstream retail investors and institutions alike. The move also highlights Tether’s strategic emphasis on expanding utility for its suite of stablecoins and tokenized assets, creating a potential blueprint for other traditional commodities to leverage blockchain rails without sacrificing physical custody or auditability.

The collaboration also reflects a growing appetite among crypto-native firms and regulated platforms to bridge the gap between digital currencies and real-world assets. The emphasis on a regulated marketplace aims to address concerns about transparency, custody, and transparency—issues that have historically vexed both crypto enthusiasts and traditional precious metals buyers. If the integration proceeds as planned, it could pave the way for more cross-asset products that blend the reliability of physical gold with the efficiency of on-chain transfers and programmable payments.

Beyond Gold.com, the broader strategy includes expanding the use of stablecoins in tangible assets, such as physical metals, and leveraging Tether’s footprint in regulated financial ecosystems. The separate investment in Anchorage Digital underscores another pillar of this strategy: enabling USAt adoption within a compliant, bank-partnered framework as the new US-regulated stablecoin aims to gain traction in the American market while the parent company contemplates a future public listing. Collectively, these moves illustrate a deliberate attempt to normalize and scale tokenized gold as a legitimate instrument for hedging, allocation, and everyday commerce within a regulated environment.

From a financial perspective, the developments come amid positive momentum for gold in macro contexts marked by uncertainty and shifting risk appetite. Gold’s performance over the past year showed a notable run-up before some retracement, a pattern that can benefit tokenized representations by offering a familiar, tradable exposure that blends physical value with blockchain-enabled features like fractional ownership, faster settlement, and cross-border accessibility.

In tandem, Tether’s financial disclosures signal the broader health of the stablecoin ecosystem. The company reported a substantial profit in 2025, largely supported by interest earnings tied to its USDt reserves, which back USDt liabilities across the ecosystem. While this profitability does not guarantee future performance, it reinforces the scale at which stablecoin markets operate and the potential financial bedrock for continued investment in on-chain asset classes.

The evolving narrative around tokenized gold and stablecoin-enabled purchases could transform how ordinary investors interact with precious metals. If successful, Gold.com’s platform could become a practical gateway for users to convert digital liquidity into tangible metal holdings, while enabling new on-ramps and off-ramps that tie digital wallets to regulated, physical markets. This convergence of digitized assets and real-world goods represents a continuation of a broader fintech trend: the digitization of traditional assets with the added benefits of programmability, auditability, and cross-border efficiency.

What to watch next

Timeline for integrating the tokenized gold layer (XAUt) into Gold.com’s user experience and any custody or compliance milestones.

Regulatory updates affecting tokenized precious metals and stablecoins in major markets, including disclosures around reserves and audit practices.

Adoption metrics for USDT and USAt within Gold.com and related platforms, including any pilot programs for gold purchases with stablecoins.

Progress of Anchorage Digital’s USAt initiative and any forthcoming regulatory or market-facing milestones, including the planned public listing.

Sources & verification

Tether’s official press release announcing the $150 million strategic investment in Gold.com and its plans to expand access to tokenized and physical gold. See: Tether makes a $150 million strategic investment in Gold.com.

Gold.com platform overview and listing details (public marketplace for precious metals).

Tether’s separate $100 million equity investment in Anchorage Digital aimed at accelerating USAt adoption and the bank’s impending public listing.

Gold price context referenced: approximately 80% rally over the prior 12 months, peaking near $5,600 per ounce and retreating to around $4,800 at the time of reporting.

Tether’s 2025 profitability mentioned in relation to USDT reserve-backed income and overall reserve profile.

Tether expands tokenized-gold access with Gold.com stake

The disclosure of a $150 million investment for a roughly 12% stake signals a deliberate, strategic step for Tether into the intersection of tokenized commodities and regulated retail platforms. The proposed path—embedding Tether Gold into Gold.com’s existing ecosystem—suggests a roadmap where physical gold and digital representations can be bought, held, and exchanged with comparable ease to other digital assets. By tying a publicly accessible marketplace to a token representing real-world gold, the arrangement is designed to deliver on the promise of on-chain liquidity without sacrificing the security and custody that come with physical metal ownership.

From a narrative standpoint, the deal sits at the crossroads of longstanding financial prudence and modern digital finance. Gold has historically served as a hedge during periods of monetary stress, and proponents argue that tokenized gold can offer similar hedging benefits with the added advantages of transparency, faster settlement, and global reach. The collaboration aligns with an ongoing effort to make gold more usable in everyday commerce, rather than a passive, siloed store of value. As the two entities work toward practical implementations, observers will be watching for regulatory clarity on tokenized precious metals, reserve disclosures to ensure physical backing, and user-friendly features that safeguard ownership while enabling efficient cross-border transfers.

At the heart of the project is a careful balance between accessibility and custodial responsibility. The tokenized representation of gold—whether through a token like XAUt or other digital wrappers—needs to be backed by verifiable physical gold holdings and auditable reserves. Tether’s emphasis on maintaining robust backing and a clear, auditable linkage between the digital token and the underlying metal is essential to sustaining trust in both the token and the broader platform. The integration into Gold.com—an established, publicly listed marketplace—could help normalize tokenized gold as a legitimate instrument for both retail and professional investors, especially if the process remains seamlessly integrated with conventional payment rails and secure custody solutions.

Another dimension of the story concerns the broader ecosystem around stablecoins and their role in real-world asset markets. The push to enable USDT and USAt payments for physical gold hints at a potential tipping point in how on-chain liquidity is channeled into tangible assets. The USAt initiative, described in tandem with Anchorage Digital, underscores a broader ambition to advance regulated, US-facing stablecoins within a framework that aligns with formal banking and custody standards. As markets become more comfortable with stablecoins as a medium of exchange for real assets, the prospects for a more interconnected financial system—where tokenized commodities and traditional assets coexist on integrated platforms—could improve both efficiency and investor confidence.

In this broader context, Gold.com’s positioning as a gateway to tokenized and physical gold could reshape how ordinary investors approach precious metals. If the partnership proves durable, it could encourage other marketplaces to explore tokenized representations of widely traded commodities, expanding the menu of digital-physical hybrids available to users. Yet the path is not without risk: the success of such a venture depends on continued regulatory clarity, rigorous reserve management, and the ability to deliver a user experience that minimizes complexity while maximizing transparency. As with any cross-asset initiative, the outcome will hinge on execution, governance, and the ability to demonstrate tangible value for both token holders and traditional gold buyers alike.

This article was originally published as Tether Bets $150M on Gold.com to Scale Gold Tokenization on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.