Holdings near $20 billion! "Stablecoin giant" Tether "slows down" gold hoarding, but still bought 6 tons in the first quarter

Tether, the stablecoin giant, has slowed its expansion in the gold market, but hasn’t stopped.

According to Tether’s latest quarterly report, the company added more than 6 tons of gold to its reserves in Q1, a significant slowdown compared to over 21 tons in the previous quarter. As of the end of March, the market value of its gold reserves had reached $19.8 billion, equivalent to about 132 tons, nearing the $20 billion mark.

Meanwhile, two veteran precious metals traders, who were previously poached from HSBC by Tether in a high-profile move, left the company in March. Tether’s ambitious plan to build the "world’s best gold trading desk" has been suspended.

Despite the slowed pace of gold buying, Tether remains a significant buyer in the global gold market. Greg Shearer, head of precious metals research at JPMorgan, stated that Tether’s gold buying activity has had a "material impact" on gold prices, noting that the company’s total gold purchases last year were second only to the Polish central bank, surpassing all other central banks.

Reserve Scale: 132 Tons of Gold, Nearing Global Top 20 Central Banks

According to Tether’s Q1 report, as of the end of March 2026, the gold holdings in reserves supporting the USDT stablecoin were valued at $19.8 billion, which, at spot prices at the time, was about 132 tons, up from 126 tons at the end of December 2025.

Tether has two products involving gold reserves:

First is USDT, the world’s largest dollar-pegged stablecoin, with a circulation of about $189.5 billion;

Second is the gold token XAUT, with a circulation of about $3.3 billion, 100% backed by physical gold. XAUT currently corresponds to 22 tons of gold, an increase of 6 tons from last December.

In total, Tether currently holds about 154 tons of gold across both products. According to Reuters estimates, if it were considered a sovereign nation, its gold reserve scale would rank among the world's top 20, just behind Brazil (172 tons).

It is worth noting that the above figures are only what Tether has disclosed. According to Reuters, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated in January that the company plans to allocate 10% to 15% of its $20 billion proprietary investment portfolio to physical gold, implying that Tether’s actual gold holdings may far exceed the disclosed data.

Despite the large scale of gold holdings, their proportion in USDT reserves is still relatively limited. As of the end of Q1, US Treasuries dominated USDT’s reserve assets, totaling $117 billion; gold accounted for about 10%; bitcoin holdings were about $7 billion.

Tether’s business model is: users exchange dollars for USDT, Tether invests the received dollars in US Treasuries, gold, bitcoin, etc., earning spread and investment income.

The financial report also shows that Tether’s net profit in Q1 slightly exceeded $1 billion, and full-year net profit for 2025 surpassed $10 billion.

Gold Buying Slowed: Traders Left, “Best Gold Trading Desk” Plan Failed

Tether’s gold purchases dropped sharply from over 21 tons last quarter to about 6 tons in Q1, reflecting a strategic contraction induced by a personnel change.

Bloomberg reports that Tether previously recruited two senior precious metals traders from HSBC, claiming to build the “world’s best gold trading desk” and planning to actively manage its gold investment portfolio. However, these traders left the company in March.

Regarding this personnel change, Tether stated that the company "is always committed to operating with a streamlined team" and will fully utilize the professional experience gained from recent investments in the gold industry.

According to Reuters, four sources revealed that the arrangement failed because the regulatory structure above the traders imposed organizational constraints, making the plan "fundamentally unworkable".

Against this backdrop, Tether is turning to equity investment to position itself in the gold industry chain. Bloomberg reports the company took a stake in US precious metals dealer Gold.com Inc. in February, which owns sizeable trading and logistics operations.

In addition, despite slowing down in Q1, Tether’s presence in the gold market remains significant.

Greg Shearer, JPMorgan’s head of precious metals research, said before Tether’s latest quarterly report release that Tether’s buying activity had a "material impact" on global gold prices. He pointed out that Tether’s total gold purchases last year exceeded all central banks except Poland.

The gold market was highly volatile in Q1. In January, gold prices surged to a near record high of almost $5,600 per ounce, then underwent several sharp corrections, the latest instigated by the outbreak of the US-Iran war. Against this backdrop, Tether’s slowing pace of gold purchases may also be related to the high degree of uncertainty in the market environment.

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