Tether Gold reserves rise 9.5% as gold posts worst quarter in 13 years

The physical gold reserves backing Tether Gold (XAUt) increased 9.5% in the second quarter, which Tether said reflected growing demand for tokenized gold exposure.

Gold fell 14.1% during the quarter, its worst quarterly performance since the second quarter of 2013, data from TradingView shows.

“Holders of Tether Gold are not only buying XAUt when the price of gold is rising. They are using periods of market weakness to increase their ownership of physical gold through a product that is fully backed, transparent, portable and accessible onchain,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, in Monday’s XAUt attestation report. 

The value of distributed tokenized commodities fell 4.2% to $4.58 billion in the past 30 days, while the number of holders rose 6.5% to 253,000, according to RWA.xyz data.

The physical gold reserves backing XAUt increased 36% in the first quarter to 707,747 fine troy ounces, valued at $3.3 billion at quarter-end. XAUt received Shariah certification from Amanah Advisors in July, a move that could expand access to the token among Islamic financial institutions.

Tether Gold ranks as the largest distributed tokenized commodity product with $2.4 billion in total value as of Monday.

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