Tether has taken the idea of backing its USDT stablecoin seriously and has become one of the largest buyers of gold. It has even surpassed most central banks, according to Collin Brown at ETH News.
A Financial Times chart circulating this week highlights the aggressiveness with which the company is accumulating the metal, revealing that its purchases exceed those of major sovereign buyers such as Kazakhstan, Brazil, and Turkey.
The chart shows that Tether has acquired 26 tonnes of gold, more than any other country in the comparison group. Kazakhstan follows with 18 tonnes, Brazil with 15, while others such as Turkey and Iraq cluster around the mid-single digits. Countries such as Bulgaria, Serbia and the Philippines appear much further down the list, with only 1 or 2 tonnes each.
This places Tether, a private cryptocurrency company, at the top of a ranking usually reserved for central banks and sovereign wealth funds. The idea that a stablecoin issuer is becoming one of the main drivers of demand for gold is already generating debate in the world of cryptocurrencies and precious metals.
Tether has long been known for its heavy exposure to US Treasury bonds, but its accumulation of gold adds a new twist to the narrative. Gold investors, particularly traditional ‘gold bugs,’ may be surprised to learn that one of the main drivers of recent upward pressure on prices is not a central bank or government, but a blockchain company that is restructuring its reserve strategies.
If Tether continues to buy at this scale, its influence on global commodity markets could extend far beyond cryptocurrencies, marking a new era in which digital asset giants play a direct role in shaping traditional macroeconomic flows.
Source: Yahoo!Finanzas
