The El Salvador-based crypto company now holds nearly 80 tons of gold, it said. The vast majority of that is owned by Tether directly, making it one of the largest gold holders in the world outside of banks and nation states.
The private vault is based in Switzerland and is fully owned by the company. The exact location hasn’t been disclosed.
Chief Executive Paolo Ardoino told Bloomberg that this decision was about ownership, scale, and cost. The company is based in El Salvador and is best known as the issuer of USDT, the world’s largest stablecoin.
Tether now holds $159 billion worth of tokens in circulation, which are backed by various reserves, including US Treasuries and precious metals. Paolo made it clear that the move to physical gold storage is strategic and intended to reduce long-term costs. “If you have your own vault, eventually, with the size, it gets much cheaper to do custody,” he said.
As of March 2025, Tether’s own reports show that nearly 5% of its total reserves are now held in precious metals, with the vast majority being gold. With the value of its bullion holdings now on par with UBS Group AG, one of the few major banks that discloses its precious metal reserves, Tether is pushing into a category usually reserved for nation states and central banks.
Source: Binance, Bloomberg