Is Tether's XAUT gold token worth buying?

Author: Wenser, Odaily Planet Daily

2026, survival is king.

In our previous article, "2026, Survive: A Bear Market Survival and Counterattack Handbook for Crypto Investors," we systematically outlined this year's "survival strategies," emphasizing asset allocation in gold and other precious metals as a key focus. For those aiming to use gold to combat inflation, mitigate the effects of fiat currency devaluation, and the decline of the US dollar, the next challenge is how to allocate gold-related assets.

In this regard, based on my personal understanding, XAUT issued by Tether may be the best way for crypto users to allocate gold assets. Considering Tether's recent launch of "Scudo," a new unit of account for Tether Gold (XAU₮), the entry barrier for gold tokens has also plummeted to just a few dollars.

Odaily Planet Daily will provide a systematic analysis in this article on whether XAUT is worth allocating positions in.

Potential support for gold price increases: US policy, ETF inflows, bank ratings

Last September, when spot gold prices were still hovering around $3,400-$3,500, we systematically introduced five major gold tokens in our article, "Gold Prices Expected to Continue Rising to $3,900/oz: A Review of 5 Major Gold Tokens," with XAUT among them. Looking back three months later, the spot gold price once surged to around $4,550 per ounce—a truly astounding figure.

Furthermore, despite the recent price correction, the upward momentum of spot gold has not been significantly interrupted. Specifically, the support for gold prices stems from the following aspects:

World Gold Council: Three factors, including the US Supreme Court's tariff decision, will only have a short-term impact on future gold prices.

The World Gold Council released a report stating that the surge in precious metals (including silver and platinum) in December, along with the rebalancing of commodity indices, may trigger market volatility in the short term. However, aside from short-term fluctuations, gold is expected to continue its own price action. The upcoming ruling by the US Supreme Court on tariff policy could have a significant impact on US trade policy. This impact on gold may be more complex, but could provide potential support. Finally, the ongoing geopolitical conflicts (recent US actions in Venezuela being the latest example) also provide support for gold prices.

Gold prices broke historical records 53 times in 2025, and ETFs saw an unprecedented influx of funds.

The World Gold Council stated that with gold prices breaking historical records 53 times in 2025, global investors poured unprecedented funds into gold ETFs. North American funds contributed the majority of global inflows in 2025. Meanwhile, gold holdings in Asia nearly doubled, and Europe also showed significant demand.

Gold rose approximately 65% throughout 2025, hitting over 50 new highs, while silver rose approximately 150%.

According to precious metals market data for 2025, spot gold closed down 0.46% on December 31st, at $4318.65 per ounce. Against the backdrop of global "de-dollarization," the Federal Reserve's resumption of interest rate cuts, and continued gold purchases by central banks worldwide, gold became the most dazzling "star asset" of 2025, maintaining an upward trend throughout the year, rising approximately 65% and reaching a record high of $4549.96 per ounce, setting more than 50 new highs during the year.

UBS Group: Raises its gold price targets for March, June, and September 2026 to $5,000 per ounce.

UBS maintains a bullish stance and has raised its gold price targets for March, June, and September 2026 to $5,000 per ounce (previously $4,500 per ounce). It expects gold prices to decline slightly to $4,800 per ounce by the end of 2026.

Based on the above information, the outlook for gold prices is positive for the next year. Let's discuss why Tether's gold token XAUT is worth allocating.

XAUT offers four major advantages: high market capitalization, low entry threshold, good liquidity, and the ability to leverage.

Firstly, it is backed by Tether's strong financial resources and XAUT's gold reserves and ample liquidity.

Earlier this month, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated that Tether purchased 8,888 bitcoins on New Year's Eve 2025, worth approximately $780 million. This transaction brought the stablecoin issuer's publicly disclosed bitcoin holdings to over 96,000. Tether currently allocates 15% of its quarterly profits to bitcoin regularly. Furthermore, Tether purchased 26 tons of gold in the third quarter of 2025, bringing its total gold holdings to 116 tons, ranking it among the top 30 gold holders globally. A market capitalization of around $2.3 billion also demonstrates XAUT's ample liquidity.

Secondly, Tether recently launched a new accounting unit for XAUT called "Scudo".

According to official news, Tether has officially launched Scudo, a new unit of account for Tether Gold (XAUT). This unit aims to restore gold as a means of payment. One Scudo is defined as one-thousandth of a troy ounce of gold or one-thousandth of a XAUT (approximately US$4.4). This move solves the problem of dealing with long decimal places when trading or pricing by introducing a simpler pricing method, making gold more practical in everyday economic activities. Tether Gold is currently fully backed by physical gold in secure vaults; the introduction of Scudo does not change the structure or backing method of XAUT.

Thirdly, XAUT is listed on major mainstream CEX and DEX platforms and supports spot buying or contract leverage operations.

According to Coingecko, XAUT supports buying and selling on CEXs such as Bybit, OKX, and Bitget, as well as DEXs such as Uniswap, Fluid, and Curve.

Finally, Tether's dominant position in the stablecoin market and its extremely high profit margins provide strong support for XAUT's growth and development, and its industry application adoption is expected to further increase in 2026.

According to a Bloomberg report citing data from Artemis Analytics, global stablecoin trading volume surged 72% year-on-year in 2025, reaching a record $33 trillion. Circle's USDC led the way with $18.3 trillion in trading volume, while Tether's USDT also remained high at $13.3 trillion. Together, they accounted for the vast majority of stablecoin trading activity.

Given the continuous decline in the USD/CNY exchange rate, for most ordinary people with relatively limited liquidity and low risk appetite, converting some of their fiat currency into the gold token XAUT might be a better solution.