Gold at $5,300: Tether hoards 130 tons while Coinbase promotes futures
As spot gold surged above $5,300 per ounce this week — peaking at $5,311 at 3:30 am UTC, according to TradingView — Tether and Coinbase took divergent approaches to gaining exposure to the rally. Tether, issuer of the gold-backed stablecoin XAUT and the dollar stablecoin USDt, increased its gold accumulation.
The company reported $12 billion in gold exposure as of September 2025 and holds 520,089 troy ounces of gold (about 16.2 metric tons) allocated for XAUT separately from a broader reserve of roughly 130 metric tons, worth around $22 billion at current prices. A Tether spokesperson said the company "maintains approximately 130 metric tons of physical gold, and the gold backing every XAUT token is held separately, making it eligible for physical delivery redemption." The scale of Tether's reserves makes it comparable with some national central banks, using World Gold Council data cited by Cointelegraph.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino was quoted as saying the company is "soon becoming basically one of the biggest, let’s say, gold central banks in the world." Coinbase instead highlighted access to gold futures on its platform as bullion rallied. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong posted that "you can trade precious metals on Coinbase" and noted that silver, gold, copper and platinum futures are available.
Commentators pointed out that futures trading does not involve physical delivery and some described the post as a "top signal" for traders.
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