Tether netted $5 billion from its gold investment: Community calls for a shift to Bitcoin investment.

Execution Summary

Tether has realized over $5 billion in paper gains through strategic gold investments . The company holds approximately 140 tons of physical gold (worth about $23-24 billion), benefiting from the surge in gold prices from $3,858/ounce in September 2025 to over $5,200/ounce in January 2026. Jefferies Group estimates that its gold holdings have appreciated by over $5 billion, with the 27 tons of gold added in the fourth quarter alone appreciating by approximately $700 million by early 2026.

Meanwhile, significant divisions have emerged within the cryptocurrency community : some opinion leaders criticize Tether for prioritizing gold over Bitcoin, urging it to follow Binance's example and use profits to buy back crypto assets. Tether projects profits of $15 billion by 2025 and has already allocated a portion of its profits to gold, Bitcoin, and US Treasury bonds.

Tether Gold Holdings and Profit Analysis

Holdings size and value details

Tether's gold reserves have made it the world's largest non-bank gold holder , exceeding the central bank reserves of countries like Greece, Qatar, and Australia, and placing it among the top 30 gold holders globally. The company sources its gold directly from Swiss refineries and global financial institutions, storing it in a Cold War-era nuclear bunker in Switzerland, protected by multiple steel doors and the world-leading PANews security system.

Profit and Investment Strategy

Tether projects profits of $15 billion by 2025, and the company employs a diversified investment strategy.

CEO Paolo Ardoino stated, "For our own portfolio, we allocate approximately 10% to Bitcoin and 10-15% to gold," describing the difficult choice as "like having two children and deciding which is prettier" (Reuters) .

Community Responses and Suggestions

Criticism

Liquid Capital founder Yi Lihua publicly criticized CZ and He Yi, urging them to use Binance profits to buy BTC/ETH:

"Companies like Tether and Binance are tollbooths for the industry, earning billions of dollars in profits annually and achieving rapid success early in the industry. Tether, as an unregulated stablecoin company, has made huge profits in the industry and actively used those profits to buy gold. It's successful from an investment perspective, but a failure from the perspective of industry development and respect," The Blockbeats .

Yi further compared the model of the compliant stablecoin USD1, which subsidizes users' profits through WLFI and continuously purchases industry assets such as ETH, believing that this is the "true industry builder".

Divergent sentiments on Twitter

Twitter discussions show a heated debate within the community regarding gold versus Bitcoin:

• Gold proponents emphasized its safe-haven appeal, with Steve Hanke noting, "Gold hit a new all-time high today: $5,626.80 per ounce," and reiterating his forecast target of $6,000 .

• Bitcoin supporters remain confident, with 0xBossman stating, "Bitcoin will eventually make a similar move. We experienced a bull market first, now the metal can rise, but don't ignore what might happen next. "

• Trading Reality : Stacker Satoshi points out that traders faced liquidations when short tokenized metals, noting that "the vast majority of liquidated short positions in the past 24 hours have been various versions of gold and silver. "

USDT Liquidity and Market Background

Dune Analytics data provides context for Tether's liquidity management:

USDT balance trend on exchanges (180 days)

Dune

Institutional USDT holdings

USDT holdings of market makers and venture capital firms are shown below:

• FalconX and Jump Trading : The most volatile and highest open interest (FalconX once reached a peak of $72 million).
• Other institutions : Holdings in Animoca Brands, Cumberland, and Flowdesk are negligible.
• Latest data : Jump Trading holds $10.99 million, FalconX holds $8.12 million (January 7, 2026)

Dune

DeFi Protocol USDT Activities

USDT distribution in lending protocols is extremely concentrated:

• Ethereum Aave : Dominance, Growth from Under $100 Million to $1.2 Billion (2026-01-06)
• Compound : Positions are negligible, remaining essentially at near-zero levels.
• Long-term trend : Aave shows a clear growth trend, despite extreme volatility.

Dune

Gold vs. Bitcoin: The Battle for Value

Market performance comparison

Investment Logic Disagreement

Views supporting gold :

• Geopolitical uncertainty and declining confidence in the US dollar are driving safe-haven demand.
• With thousands of years of history in value storage, it enjoys high institutional recognition.
• Physical properties provide a real sense of security

Opinions supporting Bitcoin :

• Digital features are more suitable for the future financial system
• A fixed supply (21 million units) provides inflation protection.
• Decentralization avoids the risk of single point of failure.

Tether CEO Ardoino took a balanced approach: "The world is not in a happy place right now. Gold is hitting new highs every day. Why? Because everyone is afraid." (Reuters )

Data quality assessment

Advantages :

• All core data sources are consistent and there are no major conflicts.
• High time freshness (data from January 28-29, 2026)
• Cross-validation from multiple independent sources (Reuters, Bloomberg, PANews, FT)

limitation :

• Tether has not disclosed the total value of its investment portfolio, making it impossible to calculate the precise proportion of gold allocation.
• Bitcoin holdings data is not detailed enough, lacking information on current market capitalization and returns.
• Dune data primarily reflects USDT liquidity and has no direct correlation with gold investment.

Conclusions and Outlook

Tether has indeed realized over $5 billion in paper profits through strategic gold investments, demonstrating the company's emphasis on traditional safe-haven assets. However, the cryptocurrency community is clearly divided on this: some believe it validates gold's status as a store of value, while others criticize Tether for failing to invest more of its profits in native crypto assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Future Outlook :

1. Tether is likely to maintain its diversified strategy , continuing to balance its investment portfolio across gold, Bitcoin, and US Treasury bonds.
2. Community pressure may increase : If Bitcoin performs exceptionally well, calls for buying back crypto assets could intensify.
3. Impact of the regulatory environment : Compliance requirements may affect Tether's investment decisions and disclosure transparency.

Investment Implications : Tether's success story demonstrates the art of balancing traditional safe-haven assets with crypto assets for large institutions, but it also highlights the strong expectation of the cryptocurrency native community for industry profits to be reinvested in the ecosystem.

Data cutoff time: January 29, 2026, 02:56 UTC