XAUt Rises Rapidly: New Opportunities for Gold Stablecoins

The global economic turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has provided a rapid growth opportunity for Tether's gold stablecoin XAUt. Since its launch at the end of January this year, the market capitalization of XAUt has surged to approximately $86 million, with a daily trading volume exceeding $110,000, and it is currently listed on 5 trading platforms.

Each XAUt corresponds to one ounce of physical gold. The increasing demand for hedging risks has driven the growth of XAUt. Investors can easily gain exposure to gold through XAUt without paying custody fees and can redeem physical gold. XAUt also offers high divisibility and the advantage of 24-hour trading.

Currently, XAUt trading is primarily concentrated on three platforms: Delta Ex, FTX, and Bitfinex, mainly focusing on derivatives. Several exchanges plan to launch more XAUt-related products, such as perpetual contracts and futures. Some platforms also plan to introduce XAUt to the Lightning Network to further enhance trading efficiency.

Despite the rapid development of XAUt, industry insiders believe it is difficult to reach the market capitalization scale of USDt. Compared to fiat stablecoins, the issuance of gold stablecoins is more complex and has greater volatility. However, there are views that the market value of such stablecoins may reach hundreds of billions of dollars in the future.

XAUt still faces some challenges, such as issues with gold supply shortages. Competitors like PAX Gold may have an advantage in terms of compliance. Whether XAUt can become a true "digital gold" remains to be seen.