KPMG auditors reportedly counted the gold bar by bar. Every ounce matched. On Thursday, Tether Gold (XAU₮), a crypto token backed by that gold, got a clean bill of health.
Now Tether wants Wall Street‘s gold business. Its target is SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), America’s biggest gold fund. The catch is that most Americans cannot buy XAU₮ from Tether.
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What KPMG Found in the Swiss Vaults
At the end of 2025, KPMG found 520,089.35 ounces of gold, worth $2.25 billion. Tether had issued 520,089.30 tokens. One token equals one ounce.
The auditor gave an unqualified opinion, the cleanest result there is. Until this year, Tether had never had a full audit of any kind.
Its CEO is already aiming higher.
“I firmly believe XAU₮ is on track to become the first true competitor to the gold ETF market,” he said.
Why Most Americans Are Locked Out
GLD holds $134.29 billion, according to State Street. That is 39 times XAU₮s $3.44 billion. Anyone with a U.S. brokerage account can buy it.
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Americas biggest gold fund vs Tether Gold. Source: BeInCrypto
XAU₮ is different. Tether Golds terms bar U.S. persons from opening an account. The only exception is a legal class of large institutions and wealthy investors.
Buying directly also starts at 50 tokens, about $208,000.
On cost, Tether has a point. GLD charges 0.40% a year. Tether‘s fee schedule shows 0.25% to buy, 0.25% to redeem, and nothing yearly. Yet State Street’s smaller GLDM fund charges just 0.10%.
The Gold No Auditor Has Checked Yet
The audit stops at Dec. 31, 2025. By Sept. 30, Tether reported 827,418 ounces. That extra gold is checked only by quarterly sample tests.
Tether Gold reserves since the audit. Source: BeInCrypto
BeInCrypto spotted the same gap in August. Tethers first clean USDT audit confirmed a reserve cushion that had already shrunk 40%.
Tokenized gold is one of the few growing crypto sectors this year. Tether has proved its 2025 gold was real. No audit yet covers 2026, and Americans still cannot buy in directly.