XAUt is a token issued by Tether that represents physical gold. One XAUt represents one troy ounce of gold (specifically, gold held in a London Good Delivery bar in custody by Tether).
\nXAUt is, in effect, a digital claim on physical gold. Tether holds the gold in custody; XAUt is the on-chain token that represents ownership. You can transfer XAUt like any other token, hold it in a self-custodial wallet, and (subject to Tether's terms) redeem it for physical gold.
\nA practical observation about XAUt versus owning physical gold:
\nA whole troy ounce of gold is a meaningful amount of money. For many people it is not a realistic single purchase, and once you own it, you have to store and insure it. A coin or bar also does not divide easily: you cannot saw off a slice to pay for groceries.
\nXAUt is divisible. You can hold a small fraction of a troy ounce as XAUt, transfer that fraction to someone else, or sell it back to dollars without dealing with a physical metal at any point. That is genuinely new. It is not magic (you are holding a claim, not the physical bar), but it makes gold reachable to people for whom a physical bar is not.
\nEach XAUt is backed by one troy ounce of physical gold. Tether publishes serial numbers and bar details of the gold reserves on the transparency page (https://gold.tether.to).
\nThe custody and the token are separate concerns: the gold sits in a vault; the token sits on a blockchain. The link between them is administered by Tether per its terms of service.
\nXAUt is currently issued on Ethereum and Tron. The Tether Wallet and most major wallets support it on both. As with USDt, sender and receiver must use the same network when transferring.
\nPer Tether's terms of service, eligible holders can redeem XAUt for physical gold or for fiat through Tether's process. Retail users typically buy and sell XAUt on exchanges rather than redeeming directly, because direct redemption usually has a minimum size and verification requirements that only make sense at larger amounts.
\nThe two assets are complementary. People sometimes hold both: USDt for short-term and operational needs (paying bills, day-to-day savings buffer), XAUt for longer-term storage where they want to be exposed to gold rather than to any specific currency.
\nThe curated directory of providers that support XAUt is maintained separately and is searchable by asset name. The public version is at usdt.directory.
\nXAUt is not the only gold-backed token on the market; PAX Gold (PAXG) is another. XAUt's distinguishing features include published serial numbers and bar details for every reserve bar (on Tether's gold transparency page), availability on both Ethereum and Tron, and a redemption process documented in Tether's published terms. PAXG is issued by a different company; for specifics on PAXG, their own documentation is the authoritative source.
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