Tether (USDT) buys $150 million stake in Gold.com to boost tokenized gold distribution

Tether, issuer of the world’s most popular stablecoin USDT$0.9985, has acquired a $150 million minority stake in Gold.com (GOLD), deepening its push into the gold market just as the yellow metal gains traction with investors seeking stability in volatile times.

The investment, announced on Thursday in a blog post, gives Tether a 12% stake in Gold.com, a platform that enables access to both physical and tokenized gold. As part of the partnership, Tether will integrate XAUT, its gold-backed token, into Gold.com’s infrastructure.

The companies will also explore enabling purchases of physical gold using Tether’s U.S. dollar stablecoin USDT and its recently launched U.S.-regulated stablecoin, USAT.

Gold.com’s publicly-traded shares rose 6% after Thursday market hours.

Tether’s investment follows a steep rally in gold prices, which topped $5,000 per ounce last week. Meanwhile, the market for blockchain-based gold tokens also ballooned, growing from $1.3 billion to more than $5.5 billion. Tether’s XAUT token currently makes up over 60% of the tokenized gold market and is backed one-to-one by physical gold held in Swiss vaults.

“Gold has played a central role in preserving value for centuries, particularly during periods of monetary stress and geopolitical uncertainty, said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether.

“Gold exposure is not a trade for Tether,” he added. “It is a hedge and a long-term allocation to protect our user base and ourselves in a world that is becoming increasingly unstable.”

Earlier Thursday, Tether also announced an investment in Anchorage Digital, a U.S. federally regulated crypto bank and key partner in the rollout of USAT.