Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, has accumulated $8.7 billion worth of physical gold, making it the world’s largest privately-controlled holder of gold reserves in the independent financial sector. The company has been expanding its gold holdings consistently since early 2024, quietly shifting from reliance on treasury-backed reserves toward hard-asset collateralization. The strategy comes during heightened global inflation, interest-rate uncertainty, and geopolitical financial instability, prompting Tether to embrace bullion as a transactional hedge and a strategic anchor for long-term digital asset ... (full story)