Tether is buying up to $1 billion of gold per month and storing it in a 'James Bond' bunker
Tether is purchasing up to two tons of physical gold weekly, equating to over $1 billion monthly, storing it in a Swiss high-security bunker.Summary
Tether, the issuer of the largest stablecoin, is aggressively acquiring physical gold, aiming to buy up to $1 billion worth monthly, which translates to about two tons per week. CEO Paolo Ardoino stated this pace will continue for several months, contributing to one of the world's largest non-governmental gold stockpiles, currently totaling around 140 tons valued at $24 billion. The gold is delivered to a high-security former nuclear bunker in Switzerland, described by Ardoino as a "James Bond kind of place." While most of the gold supports Tether's reserves, some backs its gold-backed stablecoin, XAUT. Tether claims its gold-buying pace surpasses that of countries like Greece and Australia. The company suggests this move, alongside tokenized gold, aims to remove ambiguity in monetary systems, contrasting with "paper gold" held in ETFs, which CEO of Tether's gold-treasury firm Aurelion, Björn Schmidtke, warned could fail under mass redemption pressure during a crisis. Tether's buying is speculated to be contributing to gold's recent price surge, alongside central bank purchases from nations like Poland and Kazakhstan.
(Source：CoinDesk)