How Large Was Tether Gold’s Share at Year-End?
Tether Gold accounted for roughly 60% of the global gold-backed stablecoin market at the end of 2025, according to a year-end attestation released Monday by its issuer. The disclosure places XAUT as the dominant product in a sector that stood at around $4 billion at the time, before expanding sharply in early 2026 alongside a surge in spot gold prices.
The attestation, prepared under IFRS recognition and measurement principles, verified both the existence and fair value of the physical gold backing the tokens as of Dec. 31, 2025. The auditing firm noted that its assessment was strictly limited to that date and did not extend to activity before or after year-end.
As of the close of 2025, the issuer reported holding 520,089.350 fine troy ounces of LBMA Good Delivery gold, backing 520,089.300 XAUT tokens on a one-to-one basis. Based on a gold price of roughly $4,320 per ounce at the time, the total value of the reserves stood at about $2.25 billion.
Investor Takeaway
Year-end data confirms XAUT’s dominance in tokenized gold issuance, even before the sharp revaluation driven by the latest leg higher in spot prices.
Why Has XAUT’s Market Share Narrowed in Early 2026?
While XAUT dominated issuance at the end of last year, its share of the tokenized gold market has slipped in recent weeks as the sector expanded rapidly. Data shows that XAUT now represents slightly over 50% of the total market, with a market capitalization of around $2.6 billion out of an aggregate $5.25 billion.
The decline in share does not reflect a contraction in XAUT itself, but rather faster growth among competing tokenized gold products as gold prices pushed to new records. Spot gold surpassed $5,100 per troy ounce on Monday for the first time, lifting the entire category and drawing renewed attention to gold-linked digital assets.
In absolute terms, the value of gold-backed tokens has risen alongside bullion, but the inflow of new issuance across the market has diluted XAUT’s percentage share despite its larger base.
What Do the Supply and Gold Holdings Reveal?
Of the total XAUT supply minted by year-end, more than 409,200 tokens had been sold to market participants, with roughly 110,870 tokens remaining available for sale. Each token represents ownership of one fine troy ounce of physical gold held in custody, giving holders direct exposure to bullion price movements.
The issuer also disclosed that Tether Gold Investments added roughly 27 metric tons of gold exposure during the fourth quarter of 2025. That volume exceeded purchases by most individual central banks over the same period, underscoring the scale at which tokenized vehicles are now participating in the physical gold market.
The accumulation took place against a backdrop of rising demand for gold as a store of value, with investors increasingly turning to both physical bullion and tokenized formats amid concerns about fiat currencies and financial stability.
How Is Tether Framing Its Role in the Gold Market?
Commenting on the year-end figures, Tether Chief Executive Paolo Ardoino linked the scale of XAUT’s holdings to broader responsibility in the gold market.
“Through Tether Gold, we are operating at a scale that now places the Tether Gold Investment Fund alongside sovereign gold holders, and that carries real responsibility,” Ardoino said. “XAUT exists to remove ambiguity at a time when confidence in monetary systems is weakening and it is being put through a pressure test by both institutions and people.”
Those remarks come as gold prices continue to test new highs, reinforcing the appeal of gold-backed instruments that combine bullion exposure with digital settlement. For now, the data suggests that while competition in tokenized gold is rising, XAUT remains the single largest issuer in a market that is growing quickly in both value and visibility.
