Tether, issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin, reduced the amount of gold in its reserves to back Tether USDT in the third quarter by 3.4 metric tons to 142.8 tons at the end of September, according to calculations based on its reserve disclosures.
The reduction is the first since the crypto company emerged as a significant buyer of gold last year for reserves backing USDT, which has about $180 billion worth of tokens in circulation, and the Tether XAUT gold token with $3 billion in circulation.
El Salvador-headquartered Tether did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment and did not provide the reason for the reduction in a statement summarising its July-September results.
Tether said that it generated $4.5 billion in net operating profit in January-September, including $1.5 billion in the third quarter, mainly from US Treasury bills and reverse repurchase agreements.
Gold fell 3% on Friday to a one-year low of $3,883 per ounce as tech shares slumped amid worries that AI spending may not deliver sufficient returns. Bullion gained 4% in the third quarter.
Each Tether-issued dollar token is intended to represent one US dollar held in reserve. When a user provides Tether with a dollar, the company issues one USDT and holds assets of equivalent value. Those reserves are meant to ensure that USDT can be redeemed for dollars if need be.
The reserves backing Tether USDT are predominantly US Treasury Bills worth $123 billion, with gold worth $19 billion representing only 10% of the reserves.
Tether’s gold token, XAUT, is fully backed by gold. It currently stores 25.7 tons of gold, up nearly 4 tons from end-July.
(Reporting by Polina DevittEditing by David Goodman and Susan Fenton)
