In short: what started as a murky stablecoin issuer today looks like a private macro player with its influence on gold, U.S. government debt, and the entire crypto market. Next - why.
1) Where it all started
Tether was born in 2014 as a company issuing USDT under the promise of 'for every token - a real dollar.'
The problem? No one has seen what is inside these reserves. It was not just dollars: there were loans to affiliated companies, cash equivalents, someone was lent, something was transferred — in a word, the classic 'trust us on our word'.
USDT grew, but transparency — not so much.
2) A big turnaround: Tether began buying Treasuries
When the crypto market rose, Tether increased its reserves. The logic is simple:
US Treasury securities (Treasuries) — maximally liquid, provide a stable interest rate plus low risk.
In 2025, open data shows:
• Tether holds over $100 billion in Treasuries
This puts the company in line not with crypto exchanges, but with large state funds and central banks.
At some point, the interest from Treasuries began to yield more than the issuance of USDT itself.
This is where the real rebranding began:
Tether ceased to be a 'company that prints stablecoins' and became a reserve manager with over $100 billion under management.
3) Entry into gold: from stable → to private 'gold fund'
In 2020, Tether launched XAUt — a token tied to 1 ounce of physical gold.
The trick is that this is not just a web button.
Gold physically lies in Switzerland, and Tether actually owns the metal.
In 2025, this is already:
• 116 tons of physical gold
• the largest private owner of gold outside official central banks
Financial publications (Jefferies, FT) directly write that at peak moments Tether bought up to 2% of the entire global demand for gold per quarter.
The result?
Gold has been drawing a parabola for three years. And this is not only geopolitics — it is also Tether.
4) Why gold rises easier than Bitcoin
Gold and Bitcoin are commodities without cash flow.
That is, the price rises exactly as much as the greed of the buyer fattens.
But there is one big difference between them:
gold is really needed by the industry — it is used in production, electronics, and jewelry.
That is, there is natural demand, regardless of investors.
In Bitcoin, demand is only speculative / investment.
This is neither good nor bad — just a fact of why gold rises more steadily, while Bitcoin is more volatile.
5) Summary of transformation
Today Tether is:
• the largest stablecoin issuer in the world
• one of the top private owners of Treasuries
• the largest private owner of gold
• an organization whose income is formed like that of a bank fund:
• interest from Treasuries
• gold
• commissions
• operations with reserves
Tether has long ceased to be 'crypto junk' as in 2017.
This is a private structure that effectively performs the functions of a mini-central bank for the crypto market.
