Tether slowed down USDT reserve gold purchases in the first quarter, increasing holdings by approximately 6 tons in a single quarter

Deep Tide TechFlow news: On May 02, Reuters reported that Tether’s quarterly report released on Friday showed that in Q1 this year, its gold purchases used to support USDT reserves slowed to about 6 metric tons, far below the 27 tons from October to December 2025.

The report shows that as of the end of March, the value of the gold in USDT reserves was $19.8 billion, which was about 132 metric tons based on market prices at the time—an increase from 126 tons at the end of December 2024—but gold accounted for only 10% of the reserves. USDT reserves are mainly made up of U.S. Treasury bonds worth $117 billion, with Bitcoin making up $7 billion. USDT’s current circulating supply is $189.5 billion.

Also, according to data, Tether’s gold token XAUT is currently backed by 22 tons of gold, up 6 tons from the end of December last year, and has a circulating supply of $3.3 billion. Together, the two products hold about 154 tons of gold. If counted as central-bank holdings, they would rank among the top 20 global gold reserves, just behind Brazil, which holds 172 tons.

Previously, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino told Reuters that the company plans to allocate 10% to 15% of its own $20 billion investment portfolio to physical gold. The two gold traders the company hired at the end of 2025 were dismissed this March, according to people familiar with the matter, because a supervisory structure above the traders formed organizational constraints.