Bitcoin and Gold: Tether's Latest Investment Boosts 'Dual Pillar Strategy'

Stablecoin issuer Tether has acquired a stake in a gold company as the crypto giant continues to advocate for the safe-haven asset along with Bitcoin, aka "digital gold."

The El Salvador-based firm said Thursday that it had bought 78,421,780 common shares of Canada-based Elemental Altus Royalties Corp., a Toronto Stock Exchange-listed gold royalty company, via investment advisor La Mancha Investments S.à.r.l.

Tether said it paid $121.5 million Canadian dollars (over $89 million U.S. dollars) for the shares, which represent 31.9% of Elemental's issued and outstanding shares. Elemental's stock (ELEMF) is currently priced at $1.14 a share per OTC Markets data, up about 1% on the day.

"Tether's growing investments in gold and Bitcoin reflect our forward-looking strategy to build a more resilient and transparent financial system," Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said in a statement. 

"Just as Bitcoin provides the ultimate decentralized hedge against monetary inflation,” he added, “gold continues to be a time-tested store of value."

In the statement, Tether referred to its approach to stockpiling both Bitcoin and physical gold as a "dual pillar strategy."

Tether mints $USDT, the third-biggest cryptocurrency by market cap and typically the most-traded digital asset. Its main crypto product is a stablecoin: a digital token that runs on a number of crypto networks and is pegged to the value of the US dollar.

The firm keeps the value of the digital tokens in line with the dollar by holding a vault of dollar reserves. As a stablecoin, the $USDT was previously used exclusively by crypto traders that wanted to enter and exit transactions seamlessly without using a traditional bank. But Tether says $USDT is now also used by people in emerging markets with weak currencies who want exposure to U.S. dollars. 

Tether has also said it holds over 100,000 BTC worth $10.7 billion, and nearly 80 tons of physical gold. Last month, at the Bitcoin 2025 conference, Ardoino that having gold in a portfolio was a good idea.  

The company also has a stablecoin backed by gold reserves—XAUT—with a market cap of over $833 million, according to CoinGecko. Tether in April said it had over 7.7 tons of gold backing XAUT.

Edited by Andrew Hayward