In-depth analysis of Tether's increased gold holdings by 27 tons: the intergenerational asset migration behind it

Author: Max.s

Just yesterday, Hong Kong’s Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau Secretary Christopher Hui made a high-profile announcement that within three years, Hong Kong aims to become a globally trusted gold storage hub with a capacity exceeding 2,000 tons. Meanwhile, across the ocean, stablecoin giant Tether revealed in their Q4 2025 financial report that they have added approximately 27 tons of gold to their reserves.

On the surface, this appears to be an era of “gold renaissance.” From the central banks of sovereign nations to the “central bank” of the crypto world, Tether, it seems everyone is rushing to accumulate precious metals.

However, beneath this superficial prosperity, a deeper and more brutal intergenerational asset transfer is taking place. As OKX Star said: “Gold solves trust issues of the past, while Bitcoin addresses trust issues of the future. Betting on gold in 2026 is like relying on the Nationalist government in 1949.”

This statement sounds sharp but precisely pierces the false prosperity of the current financial markets: while the old world is still debating how to build more secure vaults, the true future has already settled trillions of dollars on the blockchain.

By the end of 2025, the circulating supply of Tether’s USDT has reached an astonishing $187 billion. To support this massive digital financial empire, Tether has accumulated $12.9 billion worth of gold on its balance sheet, equivalent to about 104 tons. This reserve amount is comparable to some sovereign central banks. For comparison, Poland’s central bank only added 35 tons of gold in Q4 last year.

Why does Tether buy gold? Many mistakenly think it’s because Tether is optimistic about gold’s future. No, this is precisely Tether’s compromise with the old world and a “dimensionality reduction attack.”

Essentially, Tether is using the totem of the old world—gold—to back the new world’s “fiat currency” (USDT). This is a transitional strategy. If you look closely at the data, you’ll notice a highly ironic phenomenon: the circulating market value of Tether’s gold-backed token XAUT is only about $270 million, a tiny fraction of its vast empire.

What does this mean? It means the market does not need “digitized gold.” Despite XAUT being backed 1:1 by 16.2 tons of physical gold, accounting for 60% of the global stablecoin gold supply, in front of the $187 billion USDT, it remains a marginal, insignificant product.

People use USDT to conduct high-frequency trading, lending, and payments on-chain, to access the vast world of DeFi (Decentralized Finance). Gold, whether stored in London vaults or tokenized as XAUT, remains static and slow. Its only purpose is as a final collateral, reassuring regulators and traditional institutions that still do not fully understand “code is law.”

Star’s statement “Betting on gold in 2026 is like relying on the Nationalist government in 1949” uses a historically charged metaphor to reveal the civilizational conflict behind asset choices.

The turning point of 1949 was not just a change of regime but a reconstruction of the underlying social logic. Even if you retreat to an island with a chest full of gold bars, you only take away “old value” but lose the right to participate in the future of the “New World.”

Today, in 2026, the situation is quite similar.

Gold is a trust model based on physical properties and violent backing. Its value depends on whether you believe the vault is secure enough, whether the government guarding it won’t confiscate it, and whether auditors’ reports are genuine. Hong Kong’s attempt to establish 2,000 tons of gold storage within three years is essentially an effort to attract capital by reinforcing “physical security” and “institutional credibility.” This is a typical industrial-era mindset—building moats by piling up resources from the atomic world.

In contrast, Bitcoin is based on mathematics and cryptography trust models. It requires no vault, no guards, and no auditors. Every transaction and every UTXO (Unspent Transaction Output) is verified by the entire network’s computing power and permanently recorded on a distributed ledger.

While the world is still debating how to store gold, the true future is already running on the chain. Bitcoin is not just an asset; it is the foundational protocol of the next-generation value internet.

In 2026, if we are still talking about “gold as a safe haven,” we are essentially discussing an outdated risk-hedging logic. This logic assumes future crises can be survived by hiding in bunkers. But in today’s digital survival era, the real crisis is being systematically excluded from the new financial network.

Data does not lie; it only reveals trends.

We see that although Tether holds large amounts of gold, its core business growth depends entirely on the expansion of the crypto ecosystem. The $187 billion USDT circulation reflects the global demand for “on-chain dollars.” This demand is not because the dollar itself is particularly strong, but because the “on-chain” carrier is highly efficient.

If we consider Bitcoin as “digital gold,” its efficiency is millions of times that of physical gold. Today, in 2026, transferring $100 million worth of physical gold from London to Hong Kong involves insurance, transportation, customs clearance, inspection, and other cumbersome processes, taking days or weeks and incurring huge friction costs.

Transferring $1 billion worth of Bitcoin, however, takes only 10 minutes, and cannot be frozen or intercepted.

In the current macro environment, with escalating geopolitical conflicts and tightening capital controls, the traditional SWIFT system is being weaponized. This makes assets heavily reliant on physical delivery and centralized custody, like gold, face an unprecedented “liquidity trap.” Whether your gold is stored in Hong Kong, London, or New York, in extreme situations, you may not have control over it.

In contrast, Bitcoin’s private keys are held by users, and its liquidity does not depend on any single sovereign state. This is the true “security” of 2026.

Returning to the news of building gold storage in Hong Kong, it is undoubtedly a very prudent decision from a traditional finance perspective, reinforcing Hong Kong’s position as a wealth management hub. But in the grander historical narrative, it more resembles building a tomb for the previous era’s financial system.

We respect gold’s status as mankind’s monetary king for thousands of years, just as we respect the contribution of carriages in transportation history. But in an age where cars are ubiquitous, continuing to heavily invest in horse-drawn carriages and hay is clearly not a wise move. Today, what we see is not just Tether’s balance sheet or Hong Kong’s infrastructure plans, but a stark stratification of the old and new worlds.

Some choose to believe in the atoms of the physical world, trusting that heavy metal bars can resist inflation; others believe in the bits of the digital world, trusting that immutable code can reshape contracts.

Star’s view, though radical, points to the fundamental logic of investment: Returns come from correct predictions of the future, not excessive nostalgia for the past.

If financial history is a long river, then in the early spring of 2026, we stand at a delicate fork in the road.