Tether's SECRET Plan to Crush Circle -- And It Involves 140 Tonnes of Gold

Hello and welcome to Coin Bureau's official podcast channel.

My name is Guy and if you're seeking unbiased in-depth information about Bitcoin,

cryptocurrencies, Web3 and all manner of related topics, then you've come to the right place.

I hope you enjoy today's episode.

For years now, Tethers USDT has been the default crypto dollar.

If you've traded crypto on an exchange or moved money across borders at light speed,

then you've probably used it.

But there's always been one uncomfortable aspect to USDT compliance,

especially in the biggest arena of all the United States.

So now, Tethers has made a bold move.

It's launched a separate US-focused stablecoin, US-AT,

built for America's new stablecoin rulebook.

That's a shot fired in the stablecoin wars.

Tethers doesn't just want to dominate offshore,

it also wants a legit onshore product too.

Right where circle and USDC have been strongest.

And at the same time, Tethers is sending a totally different message to the market with gold.

Not just their tokenized gold, but a real hoard of precious metal on such a scale

that Tethers is now being treated as a serious player in the $34 trillion gold market.

So what is US-AT? Why build it alongside USDT?

What's the endgame with all that gold?

And how does Tethers plan to remain the king of stablecoins?

We dive into all of that and more in today's video.

My name is Guy and you're watching The Coin Bureau.

First up though, I must make one thing clear.

I'm not a financial advisor and nothing in this video should be considered financial advice.

This is just our take on the big moves Tethers is making to retain its crown.

And if you like content like this, then show us by hitting that like button

and let's get started.

All right, let's begin with Tethers new stablecoin US-AT.

The main difference from Tethers USDT is pretty straightforward.

US-AT isn't just USDT branded for the American market.

It's a separate stablecoin with a US native setup created because the US has established

a federal rulebook for stablecoins and that rulebook must be complied with.

Tethers CEO Paolo Aruino announced the launch of US-AT just a couple of weeks ago.

Former White House official Bo Heinz leads the project as CEO of Tethers US-AT

while Anchorage Digital Bank will operate as the issuer.

Notably, Tethers has said that US-DT will keep operating as a foreign stablecoin

while the new US product is built to meet regulations laid out in the Genius Act.

In Tethers official communications regarding US-AT, it outlines all the

disclaimers US regulators want to hear.

US-AT is not legal tender, it's not issued or guaranteed by the US government

and it's not protected by FDIC or SIPC insurance.

That might sound like straightforward legal stuff,

but it isn't. It's the whole strategy.

That's because the Genius Act sets a baseline for what a legal stablecoin means in the US.

The law states that stablecoins must be backed one-to-one with liquid assets like US dollars

or short-term treasuries.

Also, issuers have to publish monthly public disclosures about reserve composition.

It also highlights strict marketing rules,

no implying your government backed in short or legal tender.

And that's why the issuer of the stablecoin is an important factor.

When a stablecoin is issued through a federally supervised bank, such as Anchorage,

it changes everything.

The focus is no longer on whether the peg holds because there's a strict set of examinations,

oversight and operating standards inside a system built to punish financial

funny business. Anchorage issues US-AT directly from its federally regulated bank under the

oversight of the office of the controller of the currency.

It's essentially Anchorage broadcasting that US-AT is being produced inside the American banking

perimeter, with bank-grade compliance, risk management and reserve transparency

presented as core features.

So, where does that leave US-DT?

Well, US-DT remains the global heavyweight.

It's the token that is already everywhere in crypto,

used by traders, exchanges and people who just want digital dollars that move fast and freely.

But, Tether knows the US is changing the rules of engagement,

and the US is, of course, a major market for crypto.

So, instead of trying to force US-DT to operate in some kind of gray area,

Tether is creating a dedicated US product that starts with compliance and works backwards.

That's the realization that Tether appears to have had.

So, US-AT is Tether acknowledging that being the biggest isn't the same as being welcome

in the biggest market.

And with that, you can see what Tether is really trying to do.

Keep US-DT dominant globally,

while making sure it can't be boxed out of US institutional demand,

as stablecoins get pulled deeper into regulated finance.

So, US-AT is an effort from Tether to not only retain its title as the leading stablecoin

but also go after more market share.

But how firm is Tether's lead?

Is it now set to eat its competitors?

Well, according to CoinGeckoData, US-DT sits at a $185 billion market cap,

while the newly minted US-AT has a market cap of $20 million granted its infancy.

In any case, Tether dominates the stablecoin market with about 60% market share,

while circles US-DC, the next largest competitor, sits at only 23%.

But if you want to understand the stablecoin war,

it makes more sense to see what the trajectory has been like recently.

Why?

Well, because crypto has been trending down for months,

and now even the total stablecoin market cap is falling.

When times are tough and BTC is dragging all manner of market metrics down with it,

you get inside into which crypto assets have more resilience.

Since mid-January 2026,

the overall stablecoin market cap began to decline from its peak of $311 billion,

and who was leading the way, circles US-DC.

But let's put numbers on this to better illustrate the point.

At the time of making this video in the early days of February 2026,

USDT sits at a market cap of about $185 billion.

Since mid-January, when the total stablecoin market cap began falling,

that's only down around 0.9% from its all-time high.

Meanwhile, USDT now sits at just under $71 billion.

Since mid-January, that's down about 6.5%.

So both are feeling the pressure as crypto goes further risk off.

But USDT has been shrinking a lot faster,

and that gap is where the real fight is happening,

because USDT and USDT have always had different selling points.

Circle's main selling point has been compliance,

a stablecoin that always plays by the rules and is built for the regulated world.

And that's important for people or entities moving size,

like banks, payments, giants, and other institutions with strict compliance.

Case in point, in December last year,

Visa announced it was expanding stablecoin settlement for US banks using USDT,

and that form of integration is precisely where circle plans to thrive.

It may not be the most exciting headline for crypto natives,

but it's the sort of thing that creates an avenue for major stablecoin adoption.

Tethers' main edge, on the other hand, has historically been distribution.

USDT started the stablecoin model we know today.

It's the first stablecoin most people in crypto started their journey with,

and it's widely used across all manner of exchanges and even across borders.

Tethers brand is the default for many crypto natives,

and the firm has only built on that reputation over the years.

Now, the problem for Circle is that compliance has been a moat mainly because

Tethers didn't have a US product that could credibly play that game.

But that's what changed at the end of January when Tethers and Anchorage Digital

announced the US-focused USAT.

USAT is the first credible domestic competitor for institutional dollars

that could genuinely threaten Circle's positioning around USDT.

So, shots very much fired.

Because if Tethers can keep its global dominance with USDT

and also offer a US-friendly option with USAT,

then Circle's main differentiator begins to look less exclusive.

But having said that, Circle still excels in a metric that's hard to ignore.

User activity.

According to data from Artemis Analytics,

stablecoin transactions hit $33 trillion in 2025,

and USDT accounted for $18.3 trillion of that versus $13.3 trillion for USDT.

So, even while USDT is much larger by supply, USDT has been doing more movement.

That tells you the crucial difference.

Supply dominance and usage dominance aren't the same thing.

Tethers brand can be the default digital dollar people hold and quote against,

while USDT can be the one that's used disproportionately in settlement

and high frequency on chain activity.

In a downturn, both can shrink, but they shrink for different reasons and to different degrees.

And by the way, if you want to stay informed on the battle between Tethers and Circle as it

rages on, then you should sign up for the weekly Coin Bureau newsletter.

It's absolutely free and you can sign up using the link in the description.

And while you're at it, why not check out the exclusive deals we've secured for viewers of

this channel. These include huge sign up bonuses and trading fee discounts on crypto's

leading exchanges, great deals on hardware wallets, and much more.

All that is accessible via this QR code right here. So, take a look.

Now, Tethers' strategic stablecoin moves a one thing, but if we want to know what Tethers

thinks the future looks like, we need to look beyond the stablecoins themselves

and look closer at Tethers reserves. What sticks out? Gold and lots of it.

In the latest assurance report covering the end of 2025, Tethers' issuer entity says it had

$192 billion in reserves backing its fiat pegged tokens with assets exceeding liabilities

by about $6.3 billion. In the breakup of what's backing USDT,

precious metals comes in at $17.45 billion. And what's that referring to exactly?

Physical gold bars owned by Tether International. Now, that whopping horde of gold

is changing the optics around Tether the organization. Sure, the majority is still

classic stablecoin stuff like short dated treasury bills and reverse repo. But once you're

holding gold in the tens of billions, you're carving out a prominent place for yourself in the

$34 trillion gold market. And that's exactly how Tether wants to be seen.

Mainstream media has been reporting that Tether has become a serious presence in the gold market.

Based on that latest attestation, Bloomberg estimated Tether had a pile of around 140

tons stored in Switzerland. That's big enough such that it's described as the largest known

stash of billion outside of banks and nation states. Tether CEO Paolo Arduino offered some comment

to Reuters that aligns with their estimate. He told reporters that Tether already had about 130

metric tons of physical gold and that they're buying roughly two tons a week. Arduino said the firm

once gold to represent something like 10 to 15% of the firm's investment portfolio over time.

So just what the heck is Tether up to here? Well for one, the gold can be viewed as a macro hedge.

Gold's been on a tear, even considering the recent sell-off and if you're throwing off huge profits

from rate-driven income, converting some of that into a hard asset could make sense.

But the deeper play is reputational. Tether is trying to graduate from a crypto issue that prints

USDT to a collateral manager that can run reserves across industries and across cycles.

There's also the pure business side of things with Tether's tokenized gold.

Now to be clear, the gold backing Tether's tokenized gold token XAUT is separate from the gold

on Tether's balance sheet regarding USDT. But anyway, the tokenized gold market sits at over

$6 billion, growing 4x since the end of 2024. Tether wants to dominate that market as it does

US dollar stablecoins. But this is where the gold story stops being universally flattering.

Because backing tokenized gold with actual gold is straightforward, but Tether using gold as partial

backing for USDT is another thing entirely and it's drawing some scrutiny from the market.

In November, S&P global downgraded its stability assessment of USDT to 5, the lowest score on its scale.

They cited Tether's increased exposure to higher risk assets like BTC and gold,

alongside secured loans, corporate bonds and what S&P called persistent gaps in disclosure

around custodians and counterparties. Now, as anyone who's studied the 2008 global financial crisis

can tell you, ratings agencies don't always get it right, far from it. Nevertheless, S&P

global's perception of Tether still captures the institutional mindset. Stablecoins are supposed

to be boring. The more complicated the backing gets, the more you're asking the market to trust

your judgement under pressure. In that context, Tether's issuance of a US compliant US AT is no

surprise. It's a clear move to capture more institutional demand for stablecoins. But in any case,

Tether reportedly finds itself holding 140 plus tons of gold and that will play a key role

in the company's future plans. But what do those plans actually look like? What is Tether's

strategy going forward? Well, for starters, with that 140 tons of gold, Tether isn't just collecting

shiny rocks. It's starting to treat bullion like a business. In late 2025, Tether planned a dramatic

expansion in lending to commodities traders after extending roughly $1.5 billion worth of credit.

That's notable because commodity trading is basically built on credit and collateral.

If you have a monster balance sheet and a growing pile of precious metals,

you can do more than just sit there hoping the price goes up. Tether plans to keep pushing profits

into gold while also starting to compete with banks in trading the metal, recruiting two senior

gold traders from HSBC late last year. That's a pretty clear signal. They're not only thinking

about reserves, they're thinking about market making and inventory. Tether has also held talks to

invest across the gold supply chain, from mining and refining to royalty businesses while also

expanding into commodity trade finance. But let's bring things back to stablecoins because the gold

strategy, as big as it is, sits inside something bigger. Tether's whole game is distribution,

jurisdictional positioning and partnerships, with a side order of diversification. In January 2025,

Tether relocated to El Salvador after securing a digital asset service provider license there.

And Paolo Arduino said it would be the company's first physical headquarters. That choice is about

anchoring the company in a place that welcomes it while the rest of the world's jurisdictions

finalize exactly how hard they want to squeeze stablecoins. USAT has been a clear play with that

in mind. The US has largely formalized its V1 stablecoins and it's a key market for obvious reasons.

And Tether needs to win in that region because in other regions, the squeeze has been real.

In Europe, microregulations have pushed exchanges into cutting off stablecoins they can't comfortably

support. Binance has delisted non-compliant stablecoins for EEA users, including USDT. And Asia

isn't exactly anything goes either. Hong Kong's regulator has been moving slowly, but expects to

issue its first batch of stablecoin issuial licenses in March 2026, and only a very small number at

first. Japan meanwhile already directs issuance through regulated financial institutions, while

Korea is still building a one stablecoin framework designed to keep issuers under strict oversight.

But beyond stablecoins and gold, Tether is actually diversifying further. It's among a long list of

firms investing in Bitcoin mining operations powered by renewables. The company has also put money

into things as far apart as a $775 million stake in video platform Rumble, and is in talks about

a potential 1 billion euro investment into German robotics firm Neuro. So Tether is complementing

its massive moves in stablecoins and gold, with a whole slew of other major ventures.

When a stablecoin issuer is trading gold, financing commodities, buying energy and building a huge

investment portfolio, well, the label of crypto company begins to sound a little wide the mark.

And given how broad Tether's activities have become, it's increasingly difficult to pin down

what kind of company it really is. And that sets up one of the main criticisms that's emerged

amid its latest push with USAT. Can one brand credibly sell two completely different versions of

digital dollars without the trust issues bleeding across all while it becomes a gold behemoth

and venture firm? USAT changes Tether's business, both explicitly and implicitly.

Tether isn't just promising that everything is fine anymore. It's explicitly stepping closer to

the world of institutional due diligence and disclosure expectations that don't really care

about crypto's old norms. However, now that we have a US friendly Tether stablecoin,

the brand is implicitly admitting the other product USDT isn't built for the same standards.

Now, some users won't care. They just want a stable token that's widely accepted.

But others might wonder if Tether can do a regulated product for the US, why should markets

tolerate opacity and reserve complexity in the offshore giant? And from that perspective,

Tether's horde of gold adds more complexity to this identity problem.

Tether ended 2025 with gold holdings above $17 billion, alongside net profits topping $10 billion.

That's clearly a company that wants to be seen as a serious collateral manager,

not just a token issuer. But in that, they're also handing critics a clear target.

Stablecoin backing is supposed to be boring and liquid, especially under stress.

And as we just saw with the 30th of January Metals wipeout, any gold backing of USDT

becomes more questionable. Gold dropped over 20% across just three days, and that's not to mention

the move's BTC is capable of, considering it's another alternative asset backing USDT.

So, can Tether pull off being the best of both worlds without tripping over itself?

Well, quite possibly, if USAT stays truly ring-fenced and institutions treat it like a separate

product with separate rules. But if the market views Tether as one unified reputation,

then things could get messy. A controversy around USDT could contaminate USAT by association.

And the scrutiny that comes with USAT could raise uncomfortable questions that USDT has

historically been able to sidestep. But for now, Tether is king, and there's no sign of

anyone else taking that crown anytime soon. Well, that's our outlook on Tether and its major

moves in Stablecoins and beyond. But what do you think? Is Tether destined to remain king,

or is it trying to do too much too fast? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments.

And if you want to find out why Stablecoins are at the centre of crypto-regulation controversy,

you can watch our video on that right over here. That's all from me for today,

though. As always, thank you for watching and I'll see you in the next one. This is Guy signing off.

Hello, Guy again. Before you go, if you have a moment, please do rate and review us.

It really helps the podcast grow and find new listeners.

Okay, that's all for this episode. Thank you for listening and see you again soon.