Tether Debuts Tokenized Gold Stablecoin Visa Card That Pays Out Crypto Rewards

Leading stablecoin issuer Tether is looking to flip the script on gold’s store-of-value framing, making its tokenized version of the commodity the key medium of exchange for a new Visa card. 

Made in collaboration with digital banking firm Fasset, the card will allow users to spend their Tether Gold (XAUT) holdings anywhere Visa is accepted worldwide. 

“Historically, gold has been a store of value, not a medium of exchange,” said Tether CEO Paolo Adroino, in a statement. “This initiative changes that narrative.”

When used at the point-of-sale, the gold-backed card takes users’ XAUT and instantly converts it to Tether’s dollar-backed stablecoin USDT, which is ultimately converted to fiat currency. 

Spenders can earn up to 6% cashback, paid in real-time in XAUT on eligible purchases. In addition to the cashback rewards, a round-up feature is applied to purchases, enabling users to round up and invest their spare change back into XAUT automatically. 

“Through this initiative, we are connecting stablecoins and tokenized gold to real-world payment systems, making them usable, accessible, and seamlessly integrated into global transactions, giving users the option to hold gold and invest it however they choose, without friction or borders,” said Ardoino.

Each XAUT gold-backed stablecoin token represents one fine troy ounce of physical gold that is held in Swiss vaults and independently audited. First launched on Ethereum, the token has branched out to other chains, including recently expanding to BNB Chain in March. XAUT currently has a market cap of around $2.7 billion.

Gold reached a new all-time high price earlier this year, eclipsing $5,000 before ultimately reaching above $5,500 per ounce. As it stands on Wednesday, an ounce of gold and the XAUT token were trading around $4,414, about 20% off its yearly high.

A representative for Tether did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.