Tether Gold (XUAT) is an ERC-20 token built to track physical gold. Each XUAT token corresponds to one fine troy ounce (t oz) of gold sourced from a London Good Delivery gold bullion bar, with the bullion kept in Switzerland. XUAT tokens may be divided into smaller units up to six decimal places.

 Tether, the organization behind Tether Gold, was established in October 2014 by bitcoin enthusiasts. The team pointed to the swings seen in many early cryptocurrencies and the need for a way to reduce that instability. The company’s goal became connecting the utility of digital assets to the steadiness of fiat currencies and other real-world holdings. It introduced the first stablecoin, Tether (USDT), a token designed to track the value of USD. Tether Gold was launched in 2020 to bring digital coins’ transactional use closer to gold’s price stability.

What are XUAT’s key features and how does it work?

When someone buys XAUT, they receive an allocation of specific gold bars that are stored in Swiss vaults. By entering their Ethereum address into the Gold Tether platform, XUAT holders can view which gold bar has been allocated to them and see the bar’s physical details.

Redemption is available through multiple routes. Holders can redeem their physical gold bars after completing a verification step and paying redemption fees. They also must possess the minimum XAUt amount needed to redeem a full gold bullion bar. The gold bar is shipped to a Switzerland-based address chosen by the holder. Alternatively, a holder may ask TG Commodities Limited to sell their gold and then receive the resulting proceeds from the sale.

What is noteworthy about Tether Gold?

By representing gold on-chain, crypto participants can access the advantages of physical and digital assets while avoiding some common downsides. In particular, XAUt holders have their gold kept in secure vaults without needing to personally cover the costs of storage.

Because XAUT follows the price of gold, investors also get exposure to a digital asset pegged to one of the most stable real-world benchmarks. That said benchmark has shown long-term durability over time. Compared with many cryptocurrencies that have historically been relatively volatile, this structure is intended to provide stronger stability. Even relative to stablecoins backed by fiat-tenders, gold-backed stablecoins are positioned as offering improved price stability.

Real gold can also be costly and difficult to manage due to limited portability, which often means a longer trading process and access largely limited to those who can handle those logistical issues. XAUT is designed to simplify this-tokenizing gold allows many more users to buy and trade faster. As an ERC-20 token, XAUT is widely accessible, helping broaden participation in gold exposure. This may be especially relevant for people in areas where fiat tenders are unstable, since anyone can hold XAUT tokens and the underlying gold as a hedge against financial uncertainty.

On the platform, purchases are made only with US Dollars, and the smallest permitted purchase is 50 XAUt, which corresponds to 50 fine troy ounces of gold. As a result, availability may skew toward large entities or wealthier participants. This is a limitation for Gold Tether, made more pronounced by competitors offering smaller minimum purchase amounts for their gold-tokenized products. Still, Tether Gold tokens can be traded in smaller portions on exchanges.

As mentioned, XUAT supports redemption, but redemption is limited to addresses in Switzerland, which could discourage some investors because of geographic limits.

What can XUAT be used for?

XUAT can function as a reliable store of value. It can also be traded against other cryptocurrencies across different exchanges.

Where can you buy Tether Gold?

XUAT can be purchased on the CEXs and DEXs listed here. It may not be offered on every major exchange; however, widely used options include Gate.io and Bitifinex. XUAT’s price will differ by platform. Since XUAT is tied to the value of physical gold, its market price will move with the current gold market value. For additional XUAT price details, refer to the charts above.