Tether, issuer of the world’s most popular stablecoin has acquired a $150 million minority stake in Gold.com (GOLD), deepening its push into the gold market just as the yellow metal gains traction among investors seeking stability in volatile times.
The investment, announced Thursday in a blog post, gives Tether a 12% stake in Gold.com, a platform that enables access to physical and tokenized gold. As part of the partnership, Tether will integrate XAUT, its gold-backed token, into Gold.com’s infrastructure.
The companies will also explore allowing physical gold purchases using Tether’s USDT US dollar stablecoin and its recently launched US regulated stablecoin, USAT.
Gold.com’s publicly traded shares rose 6% after market hours Thursday.
Tether’s investment comes after a strong rally in gold prices, which surpassed $5,000 an ounce last week. Meanwhile, the blockchain-based gold token market also skyrocketed, rising from $1.3 billion to over $5.5 billion. Tether’s XAUT token currently represents over 60% of the tokenized gold market and is backed one-to-one by physical gold held in Swiss vaults.
“Gold has played a central role in preserving value for centuries, particularly during periods of monetary stress and geopolitical uncertainty,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether.
“Gold exposure is not a business for Tether,” he added. “It is a long-term hedge and assignment to protect our user base and ourselves in a world that is becoming increasingly unstable.”
Earlier Thursday, Tether also announced an investment in Anchorage Digital, a US federally regulated crypto bank and key partner in the launch of USAT.
