TechFlow News, May 2nd: According to a Reuters report, Tether’s quarterly report released on Friday showed that its gold purchases to back USDT slowed to approximately 6 metric tons in Q1 of this year—far below the 27 tons acquired between October and December 2025.
The report states that, as of the end of March, gold held in USDT’s reserves was valued at $19.8 billion—approximately 132 metric tons at prevailing market prices—up from 126 tons at the end of December last year. However, gold accounts for only 10% of the reserves. USDT’s reserves are primarily composed of $117 billion in U.S. Treasury securities, with Bitcoin accounting for $7 billion. The current circulating supply of USDT stands at $189.5 billion.
According to data, Tether’s gold-backed token XAUT is currently backed by 22 metric tons of gold—up 6 tons from the end of December last year—with a circulating supply of $3.3 billion. Combined, these two products hold roughly 154 metric tons of gold; if counted as a central bank, this would rank among the world’s top 20 gold reserves—just behind Brazil, which holds 172 tons.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino previously told Reuters the company plans to allocate 10%–15% of its proprietary $20 billion investment portfolio to physical gold. However, two gold traders hired by the company at the end of 2025 were dismissed in March this year, according to insiders, due to organizational constraints stemming from the supervisory structure above them.
