Tether, the world's largest stablecoin issuer, purchased approximately 6 metric tons of gold for its reserves in the first quarter, down from 27 tons in the October-December period, according to the quarterly report released on Friday.

The company's crypto reserves to back Tether USDT hold $19.8 billion worth of gold as of March 31, equivalent to about 132 metric tons at the market price at that time, compared to 126 tons at the end of December.

Tether has $189.5 billion worth of USDT tokens in circulation and $3.3 billion worth of Tether XAUT gold tokens in circulation. Each dollar token represents one US dollar held in reserve, with the company holding assets of equivalent value when users provide dollars in exchange for USDT.

The reserves backing Tether USDT are mostly composed of US Treasury Bonds worth $117 billion, with gold representing 10% as of March 31. Bitcoin accounts for $7 billion of the reserve.

For the Tether XAUT gold token, which is fully backed by gold, separate data shows Tether holds 22 tons of gold, up 6 tons from December 31.

In total, Tether holds 154 tons of gold for both products. If Tether were a central bank, the company would rank among the top 20 countries based on gold reserves, behind Brazil, which holds 172 tons according to data from the World Gold Council.#GateSquareMayTradingShare