Tether's gold token gets Abu Dhabi's golden ticket 🪙

Tether Gold (XAUT) has been formally recognized as an Accepted Spot Commodity within the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), allowing firms operating in the international financial center to deliver services tied to the tokenized gold asset provided they hold the appropriate regulatory permissions. The designation extends Tether's regulated footprint in the emirate, following ADGM's earlier acceptance of the company's flagship USDt (USDT) stablecoin as an Accepted Fiat Referenced Token.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the recognition gives regulated firms a more defined pathway to offer XAUT, while ADGM stated that the move would support business growth by broadening the products and services available to companies inside the financial center. "This designation gives regulated firms a clearer path to offer XAUT," Ardoino said, noting Tether's continued collaboration with the jurisdiction.

The token's on-chain footprint has expanded sharply alongside its regulatory progress. According to DefiLlama, Tether Gold's total value locked (TVL) has more than tripled over the past year, climbing from roughly $826 million to about $2.86 billion. The asset is also being incorporated into new financial products beyond trading and custody; in June, Bitcoin lending platform Ledn announced plans to add XAUT as loan collateral later this year, enabling clients to borrow against their tokenized gold holdings without selling.

Tokenized commodities sit within a broader real-world asset ecosystem that continues to scale. RWA.xyz data pegs tokenized commodities at a distributed value of approximately $4.46 billion, representing nearly 13% of the roughly $34.73 billion tokenized real-world asset market. With Abu Dhabi's latest clearance, XAUT joins a growing list of tokenized instruments integrated into formal financial frameworks across major jurisdictions.