protos.com
Five weeks ago, Tether, the most profitable company in the crypto industry partnered with its subsidiaries Moon Gold and Moon Gold El Salvador to launch a new token, Alloy (aUSDT).
The stablecoin giant, which manages over $114 billion in assets and posted an annualized profit of $18 billion, says it “aims to redefine stability in the digital space” with aUSDT.
It also claims that its “innovative approach provides consistent value and stability between the reference asset and its tethered counterpart.”
However, according to current statistics, just five wallets have opened aUSDT positions and only 32 wallets hold the token.
And the embarrassing statistics don’t end there. Despite its claim of a “very useful and innovative combination for users who want to engage in digital transactions, payments, and remittances with a currency that feels as familiar as the US dollar,” CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap agree that over the last 24 hours, a mere $34 of aUSDT has transacted.
Read more: Tether’s new asset currently backed by 0kg of gold
Tether launches gold-backed USDT to crickets
Tether claimed that aUSDT would allow crypto users to hold a dollar-like Ethereum token backed by gold in Swiss vaults. For clarification, XAUT is the tether actually backed by gold while aUSDT is the over-collateralized stablecoin currently collateralized by XAUT.
With oversight by El Salvador’s Comisión Nacional de Activos Digitales (CNAD), Moon Gold and its El Salvadoran division helped to set up and coordinate the elaborate sequence of events and ownership transfers needed to keep aUSDT backed by physical gold.
As with most digital assets offered by Tether — USDT, XAUT, LEO, RSR, EURT, CNHT, AUSDT — any proof of reserves is mostly based on statements from corporate executives. Unless someone is interested in arranging for delivery or physical inspection of their allocation of gold in Switzerland, they must trust Tether’s assurances and paperwork regarding the backing of Alloy by Tether.
Perhaps for this reason — the trust in a centralized intermediary that is embedded into all Tether tokens — less than a few dozen people have cared to adopt its latest version of a ‘gold-backed’ stablecoin.
Read more: Let’s talk about Tether’s investments
Promoters of gold stablecoins have been trying to push tokens onto the crypto community for six years or more. Despite their efforts, however, there are approximately $1 billion worth of gold-backed stablecoins today. This compares to $157 billion worth of USD stablecoins.