Tether has rolled out a new way to use Tether Gold that makes on-chain gold easier to price, send, and use for payments.
On January 6, Tether announced the launch of Scudo, a new fractional unit for Tether Gold (XAUT). The goal is simple: make gold-backed tokens more practical for everyday use, not just long-term holding.
Scudo represents one-thousandth of a troy ounce of gold. In other words, it’s one-thousandth of a single XAUT token. Nothing about how Tether Gold works behind the scenes has changed. The gold backing, storage, and issuance all stay the same.
Why does this matter? As gold prices rise, using tiny decimal fractions of an ounce becomes confusing and impractical. Tether says Scudo removes that friction by letting people deal with smaller, cleaner units that are easier to understand and transfer.
Tether compared this idea to how Bitcoin uses satoshis. Bitcoin didn’t become useful for payments because people sent whole coins—it became useful because smaller units made everyday transactions possible. Scudo is meant to do the same for gold on the blockchain.
Tether also stressed that this update does not change the backing or custody model. XAUT is still fully backed by physical gold stored in secure vaults, and ownership can still be verified on-chain through Tether’s reporting tools.
There are also no new fees tied to Scudo. Users still pay the same issuance and redemption costs as before, with no ongoing custody charges. Scudo is simply a new way to measure value—not a new token.
The move fits into Tether’s broader push to improve self-custody and wallet tools. The company highlighted its Wallet Development Kit, which helps developers and businesses support XAUT alongside other digital assets.
This launch comes as gold prices hit record highs in 2025, driven by inflation fears, central bank buying, and demand for safe-haven assets. As interest in tokenized gold has grown, so has XAUT. Its market value doubled in late 2025, reaching around $2.3 billion, making it the largest gold-backed token in circulation.
Analysts say introducing smaller units like Scudo could open the door for wider use of on-chain gold in payments, lending, and cross-border transfers, where large minimum transaction sizes have held things back.
