Tether pulls the plug on its Gold-backed aUSDT

Tether revealed that it will deactivate its Alloy by Tether platform and discontinue the production of aUSDT tokens, removing one of the few gold-linked stablecoin experiments from the market. The deadline for aUSDT coin holders to liquidate their positions is 17 September 2026.

This comes following Tether’s focus on high-liquidity assets. aUSDT was created in June 2024 as a dollar-denominated stablecoin. The coin is minted by using Tether Gold (XAU₮) as overcollateralization (a case where more collateral is deposited than the tokens created to maintain solvency and price stability under market stress). The adoption of the asset has been limited. However, its market capitalization currently stands at about $1.2 million against 14.73 kilograms of gold valued at $2.2 million.

What is this going to mean for holders of aUSDT tokens?

Minting of the token has already been deactivated. Tether informed its users on June 17 that it had upgraded the Alloy by Tether platform to prevent the creation of new positions. Holders of aUSDT tokens will only be able to redeem their tokens and retrieve their XAU₮ collateral until September 17, 2026.

The company said the decision followed a review of user activity, liquidity conditions and strategic priorities.

XAU₮ remains relevant and continues to grow

In spite of the discontinuation of aUSDT from Tether’s list of available assets, XAU₮ still remains one of the most valuable cryptocurrencies within the Tether stablecoin group. XAU₮ represents a digital blockchain asset fully backed by gold bars which can be redeemed according to certain rules. This asset reflects direct ownership of the precious metal. There are more than 22,000 kilograms of real gold backing XAU₮, while its market capitalization is estimated at $3 billion.

Moreover, the quantity of gold assets kept by Tether has risen as well. The increase happened in early 2026, when the amount of gold assets rose from 520,089 troy ounces to 707,747 ounces, and their value increased from $2.25 billion to $3.3 billion during the period from the end of 2025 until March 31.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino had stated that tokenized gold demonstrates “seriousness, scale, and reserve discipline” similar to institutional-grade holdings.

The tokenized gold market as a whole is also growing. Industry analysis suggests that adoption of blockchain-based gold is rising fast, with Tether Gold taking a big slice of the sector as tokenized commodities are taking off.

Tether bets bigger on XAU₮ and USDT

aUSDT is just another in the series of products that Tether has ceased to produce. This happened back in February 2026 when Tether decided to stop producing its offshore Chinese yuan stablecoin CNH₮ due to low utilization and lack of demand for the product. The process was similar to the current one where the company first suspends production before allowing redemptions.

This trend reflects the company’s move to focus on the most liquid and adopted products like USDT and XAU₮, and to retire experimental assets.

Tether’s continued focus on tokenization through gold-backed instruments also comes amid the increased institutional demand for real-world asset digitization. Bybit launched XAU₮ options on June 12, introducing what may be the first derivative instrument linked to a tokenized commodity listed on a reputable exchange.

Also, Tether and the Dubai Multi Commodities Center (DMCC) inked a memorandum of understanding to tokenize other commodities using their large community of more than 26,000 member organizations.

Earlier, Tether had also made an investment of $150 million in Gold.com (formerly A-Mark Precious Metals), with part of the capital used towards increasing XAU₮ holdings.

From a market perspective, aUSDT is not expected to cause any direct effect as it remains a relatively small product. The bigger picture reveals Tether’s strategy, which seems to prefer tokenized commodities that have backing from real assets as opposed to synthetic assets layered on top of existing collateral structures.