Gold's Worst Quarter in 13 Years? Tether Says Holders Are Buying the Dip 🪙

The physical gold reserves backing Tether Gold (XAUt) grew 9.5% in the second quarter even as spot gold posted its worst quarterly performance in over a decade, according to data from TradingView and Tether's quarterly XAUt attestation report. Gold fell 14.1% during the quarter, its weakest result since the second quarter of 2013. Tether said the increase reflected rising demand for tokenized exposure to the metal during the downturn.

"Holders of Tether Gold are not only buying XAUt when the price of gold is rising. They are using periods of market weakness to increase their ownership of physical gold through a product that is fully backed, transparent, portable and accessible onchain," said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, in Monday's XAUt attestation report.

Across the broader tokenized commodities sector, the total value of distributed products fell 4.2% to $4.58 billion over the past 30 days, while the number of holders rose 6.5% to 253,000, according to RWA.xyz data. Tether Gold ranks as the largest distributed tokenized commodity product with $2.4 billion in total value as of Monday.

XAUt's physical gold reserves had already increased 36% in the first quarter to 707,747 fine troy ounces, valued at $3.3 billion at quarter-end. In July, the token received Shariah certification from Amanah Advisors, a step that could expand access to the asset among Islamic financial institutions.