## Tether Redefines Gold Payments with Scudo: What Moves are Giancarlo Devasini and Team Making?

Have you ever wondered why Bitcoin has the smallest unit called "satoshi" for easy valuation, but gold lacks a unified micro-valuation standard? Tether seems to have spotted this issue.

This stablecoin giant launched a new concept this week—**Scudo**, a measurement unit representing one-thousandth of a troy ounce of gold. This is not just a term; it reflects Tether's rethinking of the daily payment ecosystem for gold.

### New Opportunities in Gold Tokenization

Tether’s gold-backed token XAUT has recently performed well. According to the latest data, XAUT is currently priced at $4.46K, with a circulating market cap of $2.32B, having grown 68.92% over the past year. This growth rate reflects the global urgent demand for gold as a safe-haven asset.

With inflation pressures persisting, record-breaking central bank gold purchases, and uncertain interest rate outlooks—these factors are pushing gold back into the trading spotlight. Tether explicitly stated in its official announcement that the purpose of launching Scudo is to enable gold to circulate as conveniently as currency, rather than depreciate due to government oversupply.

Tether’s CFO Giancarlo Devasini and CEO Paolo Ardoino are both from Italy, and the term Scudo happens to originate from a 16th-century Italian coin name, derived from the Latin word for "shield." This homage to history reveals Tether’s ambition to restore gold as a "true medium of exchange."

### The "Gold Race" with Competitors

However, Tether is not alone in the gold tokenization field. Stablecoin issuer Paxos launched PAXG several months ago and became the first to receive a national bank charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), gaining federal regulatory approval for its gold token.

In comparison, PAXG’s circulating market cap is $1.71B, with a 1-year growth of 67.88%. Although slightly lower than XAUT’s $2.32B, its growth momentum is also quite fierce. The competition between these two major stablecoin issuers in the gold track will undoubtedly drive the ecosystem’s improvement.

### Backing with Real Gold

XAUT is backed by 1,329 physical gold bars, totaling 16.2 metric tons. But that’s not all—Tether claims that by the end of Q3 2025, it will hold a total of 116 tons of gold, worth nearly $17 billion. These gold reserves are stored in secure vaults in Switzerland, and individual redemptions of tokens can be shipped to designated addresses.

Although Tether published a proof report from BDO Italia last April, the report was not prepared according to international financial reporting standards and lacked full disclosure per industry standards. For ten years, the market has been calling for Tether to undergo more rigorous independent audits, which remain crucial for building investor confidence.

### How Scudo Will Change Payment Experiences

One Scudo is worth about $4.48, comparable to Bitcoin’s "satoshi" (currently about $0.001). This micro-unit setup makes gold easier to price and transfer in daily payments. Tether states that its wallet development toolkit can support XAUT on almost any device, pushing gold into real everyday application scenarios.

Additionally, Tether has launched a token product called Alloy, where users can stake XAUT to earn aUSDT, which is linked to Tether’s $187 billion stablecoin ecosystem. This ecosystem synergy further expands the potential applications of gold tokens.

### Market Outlook and Challenges

Gold tokenization is becoming a new blue ocean in the stablecoin space. From the continuous increase in global central bank gold reserves to rising institutional investor demand for safe assets, there is indeed market space for products like XAUT and PAXG. But how far this path can go ultimately depends on regulatory policies, user adoption, and whether issuers can truly deliver on the promise of "payments."