There are roughly 370 000 nuclear bunkers in Switzerland, a legacy of the Cold War that are now rarely used. One of them, though, is a hive of activity.<\/p>\n
Every week, more than a ton of gold is hauled into the high-security vault, owned by crypto giant Tether Holdings SA, which is now the world\u2019s largest known hoard of bullion outside of banks and nation states.<\/p>\n
Over the past year, Tether has quietly become one of the biggest players in the global gold market \u2014 the embodiment of a meeting of the crypto and gold worlds whose shared distrust of government debt is a major factor behind the surge in prices to never-before-seen highs above $5 200 an ounce.<\/p>\n
And yet relatively little is known about its inner workings, or its gold strategy. When two of the most senior gold traders quit leading bullion bank HSBC Holdings Plc last year, the industry was abuzz with gossip about where they would head next; few guessed that the answer was Tether.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Bloomberg, chief executive Paolo Ardoino described the company\u2019s role in the gold market as similar to that of a central bank, and predicted that Washington\u2019s geopolitical rivals would launch a gold-backed alternative to the dollar. He revealed that it plans to keep ploughing its enormous profits into gold, while also beginning to compete with banks in trading the metal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are soon becoming basically one of the biggest, let\u2019s say, gold central banks in the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/448244710-555x370.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPaolo Ardoino. Image: Suhaimi Abdullah\/Bloomberg<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Even in these historic times for the gold market, Tether\u2019s activities stand out.<\/p>\n
It has rapidly stepped up its purchases, buying over 70 tons of gold last year for its reserves and its own gold stablecoin, according to a Bloomberg calculation. That\u2019s more than was reported by almost any single central bank: only Poland, which added 102 tons to its reserves, made larger declared purchases. It is also more than was bought by any but the three largest exchange-traded funds, which represent the collective activity of tens of thousands of individual traders and investors.<\/p>\n
The company holds around 140 tons of gold, according to Ardoino, most of which are its own reserves, along with the bullion backing its own gold token. That amount of metal is worth approximately $24 billion, the largest known hoard outside of those held by central banks, ETFs and commercial banks whose vaults underpin the main trading hubs.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s only growing: Ardoino said that Tether had been buying at a rate of about one to two\u00a0tons a week, and intended to continue doing so for\u00a0\u201cdefinitely the next few months.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen of course, based on the market, we are going to decide, but yeah, I think we will continue in this direction,\u201d the 41-year-old Italian added.<\/p>\n
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Asked if there was a point at which Tether might reduce its gold purchases, Ardoino said: \u201cMaybe we are going to reduce, we don\u2019t know yet. We are going to assess on a quarterly basis our demand for gold.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/446512646-555x414.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Tether makes money from its dollar stablecoin, which is the giant of the sector, with $186 billion in circulation. The company takes in real dollars in exchange for that USDT token, and invests them in Treasuries and other assets, such as gold, raking in billions in interest and trading profits.<\/p>\n
Possessing the physical metal is crucial, Ardoino said, so much so that the company has taken the unusual step of storing the bullion itself in the former nuclear bunker in Switzerland, guarded by multiple layers of thick steel doors. \u201cIt\u2019s a James Bond kind of place,\u201d Ardoino said. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The secretive nature of the gold market means that while it\u2019s easy to describe broad drivers of investment, it can be hard to pinpoint who exactly is behind the buying. China, for example, officially disclosed just 27 tons of purchases last year, but many traders believe it bought much more.<\/p>\n
Such is the scale of Tether\u2019s disclosed purchases that some market watchers have pointed to their role in shifting global prices. The purchases likely contributed to gold\u2019s 65% rally last year, analysts at Jefferies Financial Group Inc. said in a note, describing Tether as a \u201csignificant new buyer\u201d which \u201ccould drive sustained gold demand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Tether is only a small part of a much larger rush from investors into gold, with central banks and ETF investors collectively buying more than 1,500 tons of metal.<\/p>\n
Tether\u2019s buying would have had an impact on the price, but was only a small part of the reason for gold\u2019s spectacular rally, said John Reade, chief strategist for the World Gold Council. \u201cThey have been a component of the rally, but not all by any means,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018The best trading floor for gold in the world\u2019<\/span><\/h2>\nArdoino is not content with merely buying gold. He also wants Tether to trade it \u2014 effectively competing with the likes of JPMorgan Chase & Co., HSBC, and the other big banks that dominate the market.<\/p>\n
The company needs \u201cthe best trading floor for gold in the world\u201d in order to continue buying bullion in the long term and to capitalise on potential market inefficiencies, Ardoino said, adding that it is still analysing the market and potential trading strategies would be structured so the company \u201cremains very long physical gold.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal is to have a steady, stable, long-term access to gold,\u201d Ardoino said.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s an indication of its growing ambitions that the company has hired\u00a0two senior gold traders from HSBC to help manage its activities in the bullion market. Tether is looking at ways of actively trading the gold it owns, Ardoino said, including potentially capturing arbitrage opportunities when the cost of futures diverges widely from prices for the physical metal.<\/p>\n
Buying about $1 billion a month of physical gold is a logistical challenge. Tether purchases both directly from refiners in Switzerland and from the biggest financial institutions in the market, Ardoino said, and a big order of metal can take months to arrive.<\/p>\n
The company is exploring how to make its process of buying gold more efficient, he said, \u201cbecause one to two tons per week is a very sizable amount.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/448237593-555x370.jpg\")
<\/p>\nGold bars at a precious metals refinery in Switzerland. Image: Francesca Volpi\/Bloomberg<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
It\u2019s not just gold bullion that Tether is interested in. The company\u2019s bullish stance on the precious metal has also led it to acquire stakes in royalty companies that specialise in acquiring revenue streams from gold miners.<\/p>\n
It has taken stakes in almost every mid-sized Canadian listed royalty company, including Elemental Royalty Corp, Metalla Royalty & Streaming Ltd, Versamet Royalties Corp \u00a0and Gold Royalty Corp.<\/p>\n
The rapid accumulation of equity stakes in royalty companies has been spearheaded by Juan Sartori, according to people familiar with the matter \u2014\u00a0a former Uruguayan senator, businessman and co-owner of Premier League football club Sunderland AFC.<\/p>\n
Gold vs Dollar\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\nIn some ways, Tether\u2019s approach to gold is much like that of a central bank. Like a central bank, it prizes gold for its liquidity, as well as its status as a reserve asset that is no one\u2019s debt.<\/p>\n
Gold is \u201clogically a safer asset than any national currency.\u201d Ardoino said in an earlier Bloomberg interview. \u201cEvery single central bank in the BRICS countries is buying gold.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Tether\u2019s emerging markets users of its dollar stablecoin are \u201cexactly the people that love gold and have been using gold as to protect themselves from their own government that have been debasing their currency for a long time,\u201d he said this week.\u00a0\u201cWe believe that the world is going towards darkness. We believe that there is a lot of turmoil.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/448394651-555x389.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Gold gained more than 1.5% on Wednesday, rising for an eighth consecutive session to hit a fresh record, after US President Donald Trump\u2019s comments indicating he\u2019s comfortable with the dollar\u2019s recent decline sent the greenback to its lowest since 2022.<\/p>\n
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CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Still, buying gold represents a risk. Any shift away from holding US dollars risks losses that could imperil its ability to ensure that its dollar stablecoin USDT is always worth $1.<\/p>\n
In November USDT was downgraded to a stability rating of \u201cweak\u201d by analysts at S&P Global Ratings, who said their\u00a0assessment \u201creflects the rise in exposure to high-risk assets in USDT\u2019s reserves over the past year,\u201d including Bitcoin, gold, secured loans and corporate bonds, as well as limited disclosure.<\/p>\n
Tether declares gold held as reserves held against its dollar stablecoin in quarterly attestations signed off by BDO Italia SpA.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.moneyweb.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/448244476-555x370.jpg\")
<\/p>\nTether, left, and Bitcoin logos in the window of a cryptocurrency exchange kiosk in Istanbul, Turkey in 2022. Image: Erhan Demirtas\/Bloomberg<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
So far, however, Tether\u2019s gold bet has been spectacularly successful. Its buying has coincided with the market\u2019s biggest rally since the 1970s, as investors and governments fret about holding dollars.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a trend that Tether is seeking to capitalise on with another product, Tether Gold, or XAUT, a gold token redeemable for physical bullion. The company has issued XAUT, equivalent to about 16 tons of gold or $2.7 billion, and has also launched a smaller denomination of the token called Scudo.<\/p>\n
There is a \u201cgood chance\u201d XAUT will end this year with $5 to $10 billion in market circulation, Ardoino said. In that event, the company may have to buy more than one ton of gold a week for XAUT alone, not including gold bought for Tether\u2019s reserves, he said.<\/p>\n
While XAUT and other gold tokens remain minnows compared to the more-than-$500 billion ETF market, Ardoino predicts that their time will soon come.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way I see it is that there are foreign countries that are buying a lot of gold, and we believe that these countries will soon launch a tokenised version of gold as a competitive currency to the US dollar,\u201d Ardoino said.<\/p>\n
Whether or not a gold-backed rival to the US dollar ever emerges, Tether\u2019s buying has captured the zeitgeist.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s really interesting that one of the main players in the crypto landscape sees gold as the OG US dollar debasement trade,\u201d said\u00a0Reade.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2026 Bloomberg<\/p>\n
Follow Moneyweb\u2019s in-depth finance and business news on WhatsApp here.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
ADVERTISEMENT:<\/p>\n
CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
It\u2019s an indication of its growing ambitions that the company has hired\u00a0two senior gold traders from HSBC to help manage its activities in the bullion market. Tether is looking at ways of actively trading the gold it owns, Ardoino said, including potentially capturing arbitrage opportunities when the cost of futures diverges widely from prices for the physical metal.<\/p>\n
Buying about $1 billion a month of physical gold is a logistical challenge. Tether purchases both directly from refiners in Switzerland and from the biggest financial institutions in the market, Ardoino said, and a big order of metal can take months to arrive.<\/p>\n
The company is exploring how to make its process of buying gold more efficient, he said, \u201cbecause one to two tons per week is a very sizable amount.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nGold bars at a precious metals refinery in Switzerland. Image: Francesca Volpi\/Bloomberg<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
It\u2019s not just gold bullion that Tether is interested in. The company\u2019s bullish stance on the precious metal has also led it to acquire stakes in royalty companies that specialise in acquiring revenue streams from gold miners.<\/p>\n
It has taken stakes in almost every mid-sized Canadian listed royalty company, including Elemental Royalty Corp, Metalla Royalty & Streaming Ltd, Versamet Royalties Corp \u00a0and Gold Royalty Corp.<\/p>\n
The rapid accumulation of equity stakes in royalty companies has been spearheaded by Juan Sartori, according to people familiar with the matter \u2014\u00a0a former Uruguayan senator, businessman and co-owner of Premier League football club Sunderland AFC.<\/p>\n
Gold vs Dollar\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\nIn some ways, Tether\u2019s approach to gold is much like that of a central bank. Like a central bank, it prizes gold for its liquidity, as well as its status as a reserve asset that is no one\u2019s debt.<\/p>\n
Gold is \u201clogically a safer asset than any national currency.\u201d Ardoino said in an earlier Bloomberg interview. \u201cEvery single central bank in the BRICS countries is buying gold.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Tether\u2019s emerging markets users of its dollar stablecoin are \u201cexactly the people that love gold and have been using gold as to protect themselves from their own government that have been debasing their currency for a long time,\u201d he said this week.\u00a0\u201cWe believe that the world is going towards darkness. We believe that there is a lot of turmoil.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gold gained more than 1.5% on Wednesday, rising for an eighth consecutive session to hit a fresh record, after US President Donald Trump\u2019s comments indicating he\u2019s comfortable with the dollar\u2019s recent decline sent the greenback to its lowest since 2022.<\/p>\n
\n\nADVERTISEMENT:<\/p>\n
CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Still, buying gold represents a risk. Any shift away from holding US dollars risks losses that could imperil its ability to ensure that its dollar stablecoin USDT is always worth $1.<\/p>\n
In November USDT was downgraded to a stability rating of \u201cweak\u201d by analysts at S&P Global Ratings, who said their\u00a0assessment \u201creflects the rise in exposure to high-risk assets in USDT\u2019s reserves over the past year,\u201d including Bitcoin, gold, secured loans and corporate bonds, as well as limited disclosure.<\/p>\n
Tether declares gold held as reserves held against its dollar stablecoin in quarterly attestations signed off by BDO Italia SpA.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nTether, left, and Bitcoin logos in the window of a cryptocurrency exchange kiosk in Istanbul, Turkey in 2022. Image: Erhan Demirtas\/Bloomberg<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
So far, however, Tether\u2019s gold bet has been spectacularly successful. Its buying has coincided with the market\u2019s biggest rally since the 1970s, as investors and governments fret about holding dollars.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a trend that Tether is seeking to capitalise on with another product, Tether Gold, or XAUT, a gold token redeemable for physical bullion. The company has issued XAUT, equivalent to about 16 tons of gold or $2.7 billion, and has also launched a smaller denomination of the token called Scudo.<\/p>\n
There is a \u201cgood chance\u201d XAUT will end this year with $5 to $10 billion in market circulation, Ardoino said. In that event, the company may have to buy more than one ton of gold a week for XAUT alone, not including gold bought for Tether\u2019s reserves, he said.<\/p>\n
While XAUT and other gold tokens remain minnows compared to the more-than-$500 billion ETF market, Ardoino predicts that their time will soon come.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way I see it is that there are foreign countries that are buying a lot of gold, and we believe that these countries will soon launch a tokenised version of gold as a competitive currency to the US dollar,\u201d Ardoino said.<\/p>\n
Whether or not a gold-backed rival to the US dollar ever emerges, Tether\u2019s buying has captured the zeitgeist.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s really interesting that one of the main players in the crypto landscape sees gold as the OG US dollar debasement trade,\u201d said\u00a0Reade.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2026 Bloomberg<\/p>\n
Follow Moneyweb\u2019s in-depth finance and business news on WhatsApp here.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/p>\nADVERTISEMENT:<\/p>\n
CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Still, buying gold represents a risk. Any shift away from holding US dollars risks losses that could imperil its ability to ensure that its dollar stablecoin USDT is always worth $1.<\/p>\n
In November USDT was downgraded to a stability rating of \u201cweak\u201d by analysts at S&P Global Ratings, who said their\u00a0assessment \u201creflects the rise in exposure to high-risk assets in USDT\u2019s reserves over the past year,\u201d including Bitcoin, gold, secured loans and corporate bonds, as well as limited disclosure.<\/p>\n
Tether declares gold held as reserves held against its dollar stablecoin in quarterly attestations signed off by BDO Italia SpA.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nTether, left, and Bitcoin logos in the window of a cryptocurrency exchange kiosk in Istanbul, Turkey in 2022. Image: Erhan Demirtas\/Bloomberg<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
So far, however, Tether\u2019s gold bet has been spectacularly successful. Its buying has coincided with the market\u2019s biggest rally since the 1970s, as investors and governments fret about holding dollars.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a trend that Tether is seeking to capitalise on with another product, Tether Gold, or XAUT, a gold token redeemable for physical bullion. The company has issued XAUT, equivalent to about 16 tons of gold or $2.7 billion, and has also launched a smaller denomination of the token called Scudo.<\/p>\n
There is a \u201cgood chance\u201d XAUT will end this year with $5 to $10 billion in market circulation, Ardoino said. In that event, the company may have to buy more than one ton of gold a week for XAUT alone, not including gold bought for Tether\u2019s reserves, he said.<\/p>\n
While XAUT and other gold tokens remain minnows compared to the more-than-$500 billion ETF market, Ardoino predicts that their time will soon come.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way I see it is that there are foreign countries that are buying a lot of gold, and we believe that these countries will soon launch a tokenised version of gold as a competitive currency to the US dollar,\u201d Ardoino said.<\/p>\n
Whether or not a gold-backed rival to the US dollar ever emerges, Tether\u2019s buying has captured the zeitgeist.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s really interesting that one of the main players in the crypto landscape sees gold as the OG US dollar debasement trade,\u201d said\u00a0Reade.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2026 Bloomberg<\/p>\n
Follow Moneyweb\u2019s in-depth finance and business news on WhatsApp here.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n