The New Era of Gold Payments: Interpreting Tether's Launch of Scudo and Its Profound Impact on Gold Tokenization

The global gold market is迎来 a historic moment. As of January 7, 2026, on the Gate exchange, the market valuation of Tether Gold (XAUT) reached $2.26 billion, maintaining a top 60 ranking by market cap. Behind this figure is the collision between gold as a traditional store of value and the demands of the digital age.

Tether recently announced the launch of a new accounting unit called Scudo, aimed at redefining the role of gold in daily economic activities, making one-thousandth of an ounce of gold possible.

Scudo Innovation: A New Unit for Gold Payments

The introduction of Scudo marks another significant milestone for gold in the digital asset space. According to Tether’s official definition, one Scudo equals one-thousandth of a troy ounce of gold, which is also equivalent to one-thousandth of an XAUT token. This design fundamentally addresses the challenge of small denomination division faced in traditional gold trading.

For a long time, gold transactions involved complex decimal calculations, especially when gold prices soared, with even tiny fluctuations resulting in lengthy decimal points. The emergence of Scudo changes this situation, allowing users to trade directly in complete or fractional Scudo units without dealing with complex XAUT decimals. This design cleverly draws inspiration from Bitcoin’s use of “satoshis” as its basic unit. Just as “satoshi” freed Bitcoin transactions from reliance on lengthy decimal places, Scudo provides a simple, intuitive way to price gold.

Practical Value: From a Store of Value to a Payment Medium

Tether’s strategic move to launch Scudo is about more than just technical optimization; it signifies an important shift of gold from a traditional store of value to a modern payment medium. Although gold has always been regarded as the ultimate store of value, its practicality as a medium of exchange has gradually weakened in the modern economy. Especially amid persistent inflation and central banks’ large-scale gold purchases, global demand for gold has hit new highs.

Gold faces a “usability dilemma.” While global investors and institutions remain confident in gold’s long-term value, using it for everyday transactions faces many obstacles. Its high physical value makes it difficult to divide, and traditional financial systems often require complex intermediary processes for gold trading. The appearance of Scudo aims to solve these problems. With smaller units of measurement, users can more naturally price goods and services, making gold not just a store of value but also a practical medium of exchange.

Market Response: Institutional Adoption and Capital Flows

Market acceptance of Tether’s gold products has already shown positive signals. By December 2025, the market valuation of Tether Gold doubled within a few months. This growth not only reflects investor demand for gold as a safe haven but also demonstrates the appeal of digital gold products.

Currently, macro investment portfolios are allocating 5-10% of their crypto assets to gold products. This trend indicates that institutional investors increasingly view tokenized gold as an effective hedge against fiat currency instability and inflation. The expansion of Tether’s gold reserves also supports market confidence. By Q3 2025, Tether’s gold reserves reached 116 metric tons. These gold holdings are stored securely in vaults, with each XAUT token backed by physical gold, ownership verifiable on-chain via Tether’s asset tracking tools.

Ecosystem Integration: Developer Infrastructure and Wallet Support

The innovation of Scudo is not only in its own design but also in its place within the broader Tether gold ecosystem. Recently, Tether launched a technical layer for developers, enabling enterprises, developers, and AI agents to deploy self-custody wallets supporting multiple devices and operating systems. These wallets support not only XAU₮ but also other stablecoins and Bitcoin.

This developer infrastructure opens up more possibilities for integrating gold into the digital ecosystem. Through smart contract functionality, tokenized gold is transforming from a static asset into a dynamic, programmable store of value. In practical applications, decentralized finance platforms have begun using XAUT as collateral for stablecoins, allowing users to earn yields without sacrificing the intrinsic value of gold.

Price Trends: Market Performance of Tokenized Gold

According to the latest data from Gate as of January 7, 2026, Tether Gold (XAUT) provides an important perspective on the trend of gold tokenization. As an innovative form that combines traditional assets with blockchain technology, the price dynamics of tokenized gold reflect market acceptance and valuation logic for this emerging asset class.

From a market infrastructure perspective, XAUT is now listed on over 65 exchanges worldwide, forming a relatively broad trading network. Ample trading channels provide a foundation for liquidity and are key indicators of market maturity.

Tokenized gold has both connections and differences with the traditional gold market. While XAUT prices are highly correlated with physical gold prices, they are also influenced by overall crypto market liquidity, stablecoin regulatory environments, and blockchain infrastructure development.

Future Outlook: Industry Trends in Gold Digitization

The launch of Tether Scudo is just the beginning of gold’s digital transformation. Looking ahead to 2026, the crypto market is experiencing a shift from speculative narratives to structural maturity. Against this backdrop, the development of tokenized gold is intertwined with several key trends.

Stablecoin payments are becoming one of the most practically valuable applications in the crypto space. Industry forecasts suggest that stablecoin card services could see growth of up to 1000% by 2026. This trend creates a favorable environment for the daily use of gold stablecoins.

The value of tokenized gold is expanding from the simple concept of “digital gold” to multiple roles as collateral, payment tools, and stores of value. As more fintech platforms integrate stablecoin payment functions, gold tokens like XAUT are expected to find more practical use cases.

Despite challenges posed by regulatory uncertainties in the US, the appeal of tokenized gold continues to grow because it can bypass traditional custody models, offering programmable liquidity and transparent ownership verification.

In an environment where regulatory frameworks are still unclear and market volatility persists, Tether Gold’s total reserves have accumulated to 116 metric tons, with daily trading volumes around $25 million on mainstream exchanges like Gate. Gold, as a store of value, has a history spanning thousands of years, but its role as a payment tool is being redefined on the blockchain. Tokenized gold is breaking down barriers between digital assets and traditional precious metals, blending gold’s timeless value with blockchain’s technological efficiency.