Tether buys as much gold as countries. He keeps his supplies in a Swiss nuclear bunker

The issuer of the largest stablecoin bought more gold from almost every central bank in the world last year. In this competition, Tether was overtaken only by the Polish NBP. The company's president revealed that its precious metal is stored in Switzerland in a former nuclear bunker.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino told Bloomberg that he expects his company to become one of the largest gold banks in the world. In the fourth quarter of 2025 alone, it purchased 23 tons of royal metal. In total, in 2025, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin purchased over 70 tons of the ore.

This level of gold accumulation was not achieved by any central bank in the world at that time, except for the National Bank of Poland, which, according to Bankier.pl estimates, could have increased its reserves by 104 tons.

Tether has accumulated a total of 140 tons of gold worth more than $23.5 billion. Bloomberg reported that it is the largest known gold reserve in the world outside of holdings held by central banks, ETFs and commercial banks.

Paolo Ardoino, declared that his company intends to continue reinvesting its huge profits in gold and maintain the pace of increasing reserves in the coming months. The company purchases one to two tons of gold per week. They go straight to a Cold War anti-nuclear bunker located in Switzerland, specially adapted for this purpose.

Adorno said in an interview with Bloomberg that the facility is under tight security and resembles locations from James Bond films. Tether hired two experienced traders from HSBC to manage its gold. Their task will be to lead the company's expansion on the bullion market.

Are golden times coming?

In an interview with Bloomberg, Paolo Ardoino expressed the opinion that US geopolitical rivals will probably introduce a gold-based alternative to the dollar in the future. The general director of the company issuing USDT (the largest dollar stablecoin on the market, whose capitalization exceeds USD 189 billion) has already said that, in his opinion, gold is a safer asset than any state currency.

In such a future scenario, Tether sees itself as one of the main players in the gold market. The company wants to actively trade the precious metal, taking advantage of arbitrage opportunities. The company is currently assessing the market and potential strategies. Tether also buys shares of gold mining and trading companies such as Elemental Altus Royalties and Gold Royalty Corp.

On the morning of Wednesday, January 28, gold gained 4%, reaching the price of USD 5,325.46 per troy ounce. In nominal terms, this resulted in a price increase of over $200.

MM

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