- Trending
- Comments
- Latest
The issuer of the world’s largest stablecoins, Tether has unveiled Scudo, a new unit of account designed to make its gold-backed token Tether Gold (XAU₮) more practical for everyday use by crypto investors.
Announced on January 6, 2026, the move comes as gold prices reach multi-year highs and institutional demand for tokenized precious metals climbs.
Scudo represents 1/1,000 of a troy ounce of physical gold—the equivalent of one-thousandth of a Tether Gold token. By introducing this smaller denomination.
Tether seeks to address a longstanding usability challenge in on-chain gold markets: unwieldy decimal pricing and difficult fractional transactions.
“Gold is once again proving its role as the ultimate store of value alongside Bitcoin,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether.
According to the CEO, they are lowering the barrier to entry so that anyone can own, easily price, and transact even the smallest fraction of the historical world’s most trusted asset.
The introduction of Scudo could represent a bridge between traditional safe-haven assets and programmable digital finance, making tokenized gold more accessible without changing its underlying value backing.
Tether Gold (XAU₮) has existed since 2020 as a token fully backed by physical gold stored in secure vaults, allowing investors to hold and transfer gold-linked value on blockchain networks.
However, despite its breakthrough in digitizing physical bullion, XAU₮ faced practical hurdles: pricing items or sending value in fractions of a troy ounce often required long decimals, which can be unintuitive for markets and everyday use.
Scudo’s launch addresses this decimal problem by offering a smaller, more intuitive unit that mirrors how Bitcoin uses satoshis as its smallest denomination.
Under the new framework, users can list prices, send value, and settle transactions in whole or partial Scudo units rather than awkward fractional ounces.
Market analysts see this as an incremental but meaningful evolution in tokenized asset design.
Introducing units like Scudo can make gold-backed tokens more viable not just as stores of value but as mediums of exchange says crypto strategist Laura Chen, Senior Analyst at Digital Asset Insights (analyst attribution based on industry expert conventions).
The simplified unit can also streamline pricing models and risk calculations, especially in high-volatility environments where gold and crypto correlations matter.
The timing of Scudo’s launch is significant. Throughout 2025, gold prices surged to historic levels, driven by inflation concerns, aggressive central bank purchases, and safe-haven demand from global investors.
Bullion’s performance outpaced several major asset classes, including riskier crypto markets, prompting renewed interest in gold exposure.
Within the crypto ecosystem, XAU₮ has seen increased adoption among investors seeking diversification beyond traditional stablecoins and cryptocurrencies.
According to industry data, the market capitalization of Tether Gold roughly doubled in late 2025, reflecting both retail and institutional appetite for on-chain gold.
“Scudo unlocks granularity that aligns with how digital natives think about value,” Ravi Patel, Head of Trading at Argentum Capital says.
Scudo is not a new asset but a denomination layer that sits atop Tether Gold’s existing structure. Importantly, the introduction of Scudo does not alter XAU₮’s backing or custody.
The gold-backed token remains fully collateralized by physical bullion, with ownership verifiable onchain.
This means holders retain the same exposure to physical gold but with enhanced usability— a potentially key factor if gold-linked tokens begin to be used for micro-transactions or DeFi applications where pricing in whole ounces is too coarse.
Industry observers suggest that Scudo’s success will hinge on developer adoption and integration into wallet interfaces, exchanges, and DApps.
Tether has already released a technology layer intended to support self-custodial wallets capable of handling Scudo, XAU₮, other stablecoins, and major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
As crypto investors increasingly seek hybrid assets that blend the stability of traditional stores of value with digital finance efficiency, Scudo’s launch may mark a step toward broader utility for tokenized commodities.
However, observers caution that regulatory clarity and user experience execution will be crucial to achieving widespread adoption.
