A private company has become the world's largest holder of gold outside of central banks.
Paolo Ardoino has been very busy lately. He spends $1 billion a month, buys 1 to 2 tons of gold every week, and says he "won't stop for the next few months."
Paolo is not the governor of any country's central bank; he is the CEO of Tether, the world's largest stablecoin company.
USDT, issued by Tether, is the world's largest stablecoin, with a circulating supply of approximately $187 billion. Its business model is extremely simple: you give it $1, it gives you 1 USDT token; you use the token to trade, and it uses the dollars to buy government bonds and earn interest.
With net profits exceeding $13 billion in 2024, this team of approximately 150 people generated about $86 million in profit per person. Based on net profits already exceeding $10 billion in the first three quarters of 2025, and projected to reach $15 billion for the full year, surpassing Goldman Sachs, Tether may achieve $100 million in profit per person this year.
But this company, which relies on the US dollar for its livelihood, has been doing something outside its core business for the past few years: hoarding gold like crazy.
Tether has stockpiled approximately 140 tons of Tether, worth about $24 billion. This figure exceeds the reserves of the central banks of countries such as South Korea, Hungary, Greece, Qatar, and Australia.
Tether has become the world's largest holder of gold outside of central banks.
At Tether's current pace, monthly gold purchases exceed $1 billion. With gold prices rising from approximately $2,650 at the end of September 2024 to over $5,100 now, Tether's unrealized gains far exceed $5 billion.
As Ardoino once said, "Gold is logically safer than any national currency."
Tether's users largely come from countries like Turkey, Argentina, and Nigeria, whose currencies have been depreciating for a long time. Their use of USDT is essentially a way to escape their own central banks. Ardoino takes this logic a step further: what if the US dollar also becomes unsustainable one day?
He sold dollars with his left hand and hoarded gold with his right. He knew the risks better than anyone else.
The vault in the nuclear bunker, and the traders poached from HSBC
The gold that Tether bought is stored in a former nuclear bunker in Switzerland.
During the Cold War, Switzerland built approximately 370,000 nuclear bunkers to protect against atomic bombs, most of which are now abandoned. Tether converted one of them into a vault. Ardoino described the place as "guarded by multiple layers of heavy steel doors, with more than a ton of gold being transported in every week," a "James Bond-esque place."
Physical gold is not anyone's debt, does not rely on any government credit, and cannot be frozen, sanctioned, or printed out of thin air. It is a most ancient form of security.
But Ardoino's ambitions didn't stop at hoarding; he also wanted to trade.
The global gold trading market is monopolized by large banks such as JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, and Citibank, which control pricing power and liquidity.
In November 2025, Vincent Domien, HSBC's Global Head of Metals Trading, and Mathew O'Neill, Head of Precious Metals for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, both resigned. Both were top figures in the industry; Domien had served as HSBC's Global Head of Metals Trading since 2022 and was also a board member of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA); O'Neill had worked at HSBC since 2008.
Their new owner is Tether.
The fact that a crypto company poached one of the top gold traders from traditional finance has sent shockwaves through the City of London.
Ardoino said he needs "the best gold trading platform in the world" to buy gold long-term and "take advantage of potential market inefficiencies."
Buying about $1 billion worth of physical gold every month is actually quite troublesome, as it involves solving a series of logistical challenges.
Currently, Tether "procures directly from Swiss refineries and also from large financial institutions, and a large order may take several months to arrive." They have no bargaining power in the supply chain; how much they want to buy and when it will arrive depends on the whims of others.
Building your own trading capabilities is about escaping this passivity. Saving even 0.5% on trading costs amounts to $60 million a year. More importantly, it's about gaining control.
From central banks to gold conglomerates
Tether's attitude towards gold is becoming more and more like that of a central bank.
Central banks favor gold for two reasons: its high liquidity is recognized worldwide, and it is not anyone's debt and does not rely on the credit of other countries.
Since Trump took office, tariff threats have been constant, causing the dollar to fall to its lowest level in three years. Meanwhile, central banks worldwide are increasing their gold holdings. The National Bank of Poland is the largest gold buyer among global central banks in 2024 and 2025, adding approximately 90 tons in 2024 and maintaining its leading position in 2025. China, Russia, Turkey, India, and Brazil are also continuously increasing their holdings.
Tether has taken this trend to the extreme. It's doing the same thing as central banks in a grassroots manner. Jefferies analysts point out that Tether, as a "significant new buyer, could drive continued growth in gold demand," with its purchases in the third quarter of 2025 accounting for approximately 2% of global gold demand. A stablecoin company has become one of the drivers of rising gold prices.
But the scheme doesn't stop there. Tether is also quietly acquiring shares in Gold Charter Company.
A franchise company is a company that buys revenue streams from miners. The miners dig for gold, and the franchise company takes a portion of the profits, similar to rent. The advantage is that it doesn't need to mine the gold itself, doesn't bear the mining risks, and simply sits back and shares the profits.
According to Bloomberg, Tether has invested over $200 million to acquire approximately 37.8% of Elemental Altus Royalties, and later invested an additional $100 million to facilitate its merger with EMX. Tether also holds stakes in several other mid-sized Canadian publicly traded franchises, including Metalla Royalty, Versamet Royalties, and Gold Royalty.
The person in charge of this matter is Juan Sartori, Vice President of Strategic Projects at Tether.
He was a Uruguayan senator, co-owner of Premier League club Sunderland, vice-chairman of AS Monaco, and founder of Union Group. A politician, businessman, football owner, and crypto executive—his identity is highly international.
From downstream stablecoins to midstream physical gold and trading capabilities, and upstream mining rights, Tether is building a complete gold industry chain, increasingly resembling a gold conglomerate.
In addition to physical gold, Tether also has a gold token called XAUT. Buying one XAUT corresponds to physical gold in Swiss vaults; you can actually receive gold bars if you want to take delivery. Currently, XAUT accounts for approximately 60% of the global gold token market, with a circulating market capitalization of approximately $2.7 billion. By the end of 2025, XAUT is backed by approximately 16.2 tons of physical gold.
Ardoino predicts that its circulating supply could reach $5 billion to $10 billion by the end of 2026. If it does reach $10 billion, it would be equivalent to needing to increase gold reserves by approximately 60 tons. Just to support XAUT, more than 1 ton would need to be purchased every week.
He also made a prediction: "Some countries are buying large amounts of gold, and we believe they will soon launch a tokenized version of gold as a competing currency to the dollar."
He didn't specify which countries. But everyone knows who has been buying gold like crazy over the past few years.
There's always someone who has prepared their own vault.
James Rickards, a former Pentagon financial warfare consultant, wrote in "Currency Wars" that the underlying competition between currencies is a competition for reserves.
In the 1960s, French Finance Minister Valéry Giscard d'Estaing complained that the United States enjoyed "arrogant privileges," with the world having to pay real gold and silver for printing a few cents' worth of paper.
This game has been played for sixty years, relying on the world's belief in the US dollar.
Trust is a fragile thing that crumbles very quickly. This is also the core logic of stockpiling for war.
The trade war, tariff war, and currency war on the surface are merely external manifestations of competition for monetary credit. The foundation of monetary credit lies in the quality of reserves.
When the US dollar is repeatedly weaponized, with foreign exchange reserves frozen, SWIFT channels cut off, and financial sanctions imposed, the world is forced to rethink: what kind of reserves are truly safe?
Central banks understand this, which is why they are quietly increasing their holdings. Tether understands this too, which is why it is hoarding them like crazy.
John Reade, chief strategist at the World Gold Council, said that Tether's purchases have impacted gold prices, but are only a small part of the reasons for the rise. He added, "What's really interesting is that one of the major players in the cryptocurrency space views gold as a primary way to offset dollar devaluation."
In August 2025, Tether hired Bo Hines, former executive director of the White House Cryptocurrency Council under the Trump administration, as its U.S. strategic advisor. During his tenure, Hines helped push for the passage of the Genius Act, the first U.S. stablecoin regulatory bill, through Congress. In January 2026, Tether launched USAT, a U.S.-specific token compliant with the Genius Act.
While stockpiling gold in Swiss nuclear bunkers, they are also lobbying in Washington, demonstrating their prowess in both areas.
Gold prices surged to new highs, while the dollar fell to a three-year low. In an inconspicuous cave at the foot of the Swiss Alps, over a ton of gold was transported inside, and the heavy steel door slowly closed.
The world is indeed becoming increasingly turbulent, but there are always those who have already built their own treasuries in advance.
