Position approaching 20 billion US dollars! "Stablecoin leader" Tether "eases up" on hoarding gold, still bought 6 tons in the first quarter.

The expansion pace of stablecoin giant Tether in the gold market has slowed down, but has not stopped. According to Tether's latest quarterly report, the company added over 6 tons of gold to its reserves in the first quarter, a significant slowdown from the over 21 tons added in the previous quarter. As of the end of March, the market value of its gold reserves had reached $19.8 billion, equivalent to approximately 132 tons, approaching the $20 billion mark. At the same time, two senior precious metal traders who Tether had hired from HSBC a few months ago left the company in March this year, putting a halt to their ambitious plan to build the "world's best gold trading platform." Despite the slowdown in gold purchases, Tether remains a significant player in the global gold market. Greg Shearer, head of precious metals research at JPMorgan, stated that Tether's gold buying behavior has had a "substantial impact" on gold prices, noting that the company purchased more gold than any central bank last year, second only to the central bank of Poland. Reserve Size: 132 tons of gold, approaching the top 20 central banks in the world According to Tether's first quarter report, as of the end of March 2026, the market value of gold holdings supporting the USDT stablecoin was $19.8 billion, equivalent to approximately 132 tons based on spot prices at the time, higher than the 126 tons at the end of December 2025. Tether has two products related to gold reserves: The first is the world's largest USD pegged stablecoin USDT, with a circulation of approximately $189.5 billion; The second is the gold token XAUT, with a circulation of approximately $3.3 billion, 100% backed by physical gold. XAUT currently corresponds to 22 tons of gold holdings, an increase of 6 tons from the end of December last year. Combined, Tether currently holds approximately 154 tons of gold. If treated as a sovereign state, its gold reserves would rank among the top 20 globally, second only to Brazil (holding 172 tons). It is worth noting that the above numbers are just a fraction of what Tether discloses. According to media reports, Tether's CEO Paolo Ardoino stated in January this year that the company plans to allocate 10% to 15% of its $20 billion investment portfolio to physical gold, indicating that Tether's actual gold holdings may far exceed the public data. Despite the large size of its gold holdings, its proportion in the USDT reserves is relatively limited. As of the end of the first quarter, among the reserve assets supporting USDT, the size of US Treasury bonds amounted to $117 billion, dominating the reserves; gold accounted for approximately 10%; and bitcoin holdings were around $7 billion. Tether's business model is: users exchange dollars for USDT, and Tether invests the received dollars in Treasury bonds, gold, bitcoin, and other assets, earning the spread and investment returns. The financial report also shows that Tether's net profit in the first quarter slightly exceeded $1 billion, with net profit for the full year of 2025 exceeding $10 billion. Gold purchases slowing down: Traders leaving, "best gold trading platform" plan abandoned Tether's gold purchases in the first quarter dropped from over 21 tons in the previous quarter to about 6 tons, following a strategic contraction caused by a personnel change. According to media reports, Tether had hired two senior precious metal traders from HSBC a few months ago, claiming to build the "world's best gold trading platform" and planning to actively manage their gold investment portfolio. However, these two traders left the company in March this year. Regarding the personnel change, Tether stated that the company "has always been committed to operating with a streamlined team" and will fully utilize the professional experience it has accumulated in the gold industry recently. According to four informed sources, the reason the above arrangements failed was that the regulatory structure above the traders created organizational constraints that were "fundamentally unworkable." In this context, Tether has sought to invest in the gold industry chain through equity investments. According to media reports, the company invested in the US precious metal dealer Gold.com Inc in February this year, which has a large-scale trading and logistics business. Despite the slowdown in gold purchases in the first quarter, Tether's presence in the gold market remains significant. Before Tether released its latest quarterly report, Greg Shearer, head of precious metals research at JPMorgan, stated that Tether's gold buying behavior had a "substantial impact" on global gold prices. He pointed out that Tether purchased more gold than all central banks except Poland last year. The gold market experienced significant fluctuations in the first quarter. Gold prices surged to near-historic highs of nearly $5,600 per ounce in January, followed by several rounds of significant corrections. The outbreak of the US-Iran conflict was the latest trigger for selling. In this context, Tether's slowdown in gold purchases may also be related to the high level of uncertainty in the market. This article is reprinted from "Wall Street See News", edited by GMTEight: Zhang Jinliang.