Tether’s Bold Move: Diving into Gold Mining Investments to Fortify Reserves

Tether just dropped a bombshell—the stablecoin giant's diving headfirst into gold mining.

Why This Matters

They're not just printing digital dollars anymore. Tether's deploying reserves into physical gold extraction—betting big on the ultimate hard asset.

The Strategy Unpacked

This pivot positions Tether directly at the intersection of crypto and commodities. They're hedging against fiat volatility by backing their stablecoin with actual shovels-in-the-dirt production.

Market Implications

Gold markets better brace—when a player with Tether's liquidity moves, entire sectors feel the tremor. Mining stocks might just get the crypto bump they never asked for.

Because nothing says 'stable' like betting on digging rocks out of the ground—the ultimate safe haven for those who think fiat's a joke but still want something tangible to clutch during the apocalypse.

Tether already has gold exposure

Interestingly, Tether investing in gold mining will not be a complete surprise, given that the company has exposure to the precious metal. The stablecoin issuer has $8.7 billion worth of gold in USDT reserves, according to its financial statement.

It also issues a gold-backed token, XAUt, with a market cap of around $880 million. XAUt is trading above $3,500 according to CoinMarketCap, with more than a 35% increase in value year-to-date, coinciding with the physical gold value surging to a new all-time high above $3,600.

Beyond that, its investment arm Tether Investments bought a minority stake in gold royalty company Elemental Altus for $105 million in June. The firm further invested another $100 million into the company this month as it merged with EMX to become Elemental Royalty Corp, a group with 16 producing royalties.

Tether doubles down on diversification efforts

Meanwhile, Tether’s venture into gold mining will mark another foray in the firm’s attempt to diversify and reinvest the profit from its stablecoin business into other ventures.

So far, the company offers lending to commodities traders and has invested in artificial intelligence, a bitcoin treasury company, a brain-computer interface company, and an agro business. It even bought a stake in the Juventus Football Club and has been trying to have more say in the club’s operations.

The massive diversification efforts from Tether are not completely surprising, given the billions of dollars in profits it generates from its stablecoin business. Last year, the company made over $13 billion in profits, and the first half of 2025 has already seen it earn $5.7 billion in profits.

Despite the sizable profits that the company is earning off its stablecoin business, it faces the existential threat of competitors eating into the market share of USDT. USDT currently has a market cap of over $170 billion, accounting for 59.21% of the total $288 billion in the stablecoins market cap.

This threat has grown stronger in recent months, with the US finally enacting the GENIUS Stablecoin Act, opening the door for traditional financial institutions to issue their own stablecoins. Fintech companies like Stripe are also venturing into the space, launching a layer-1 payment-focused blockchain months after buying stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge.

The firm must also contend with crypto-native competitors such as Circle with USDC and Ripple with RLUSD, who boasts of regulatory compliance as an edge over Tether. Ripple recently disclosed a partnership with fintech firms in Africa to boost the adoption of RLUSD. Emerging markets such as those in Africa are the biggest market for USDT.

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