Tether Gold · XAUT/USD · Per Token (1 troy oz)

The gauge is the most XAUT-specific feature on this page — nothing like it exists on a standard gold price site. It measures the live spread between XAUT's Binance market price and the XAU spot reference (Binance XAUUSDT), displayed both in dollar terms and as a percentage. The needle sits at centre (par) when they match; it swings right into green for a premium, left into red for a discount. The range is clamped at ±1% to keep the visual meaningful — moves beyond that are extremely rare and usually signal a temporary liquidity event.

A sustained premium above 0.5% is worth watching: it typically means on-chain buyers are absorbing new supply faster than arbitrageurs can mint and sell, which can precede a spot price move. A discount below −0.3% is historically brief — the redemption floor (50 oz minimum, Switzerland delivery) is the hard backstop that prevents deeper discounts from persisting.

Unlike gold ETFs that pool holdings across hundreds of bars, each XAUT token is assigned to a specific bar number on a specific London Good Delivery bar held in a Swiss vault operated by TG Commodities Limited. A London Good Delivery bar weighs between 350 and 430 troy ounces of minimum 99.5% purity gold — the institutional settlement standard used by central banks and the LBMA. You can look up your bar number directly on the Tether Gold verification portal using your Ethereum wallet address.

The circulating supply of XAUT (~590,000 tokens) equals the number of troy ounces physically held in vault. When new XAUT is minted, new gold must enter the vault; when tokens are redeemed, gold leaves. This 1:1 relationship is verifiable at all times — total token supply on Ethereum is publicly readable from the ERC-20 contract at 0x68749665FF8D2d112FA859AA293F07A622782F38.

The table that doesn't exist anywhere else on the internet: GLD charges 0.40%/year, settles T+2, trades Mon–Fri 09:30–16:00 ET, minimum purchase ~$200. IAU charges 0.25%/year, same trading hours. XAUT charges 0% annually, settles in one block (~12 seconds on Ethereum), trades 24/7/365, minimum on secondary markets is a fraction of a token. Gas cost on Ethereum is typically $2–15 per transfer; on Tron it is under $0.01. Physical gold coins (e.g. Krugerrand, American Eagle) carry 3–8% fabrication premium and require secure storage — roughly $200–500/year for a safe-deposit box or private vault.

Tax treatment varies significantly and is the most important practical difference. In most jurisdictions, gold ETF shares are taxed as securities; physical gold is taxed as a collectible (often at a higher rate); XAUT may be treated as property, a commodity, or a digital asset depending on local regulation. No XAUS content constitutes tax advice — consult an advisor for your specific situation.

XAUT has two distinct liquidity ecosystems. On centralised exchanges, the Binance XAUTUSDT pair consistently leads by volume (often $10–20M/day), followed by Gate.io and Bybit. These venues carry the tightest spreads (typically 0.02–0.05% bid/ask) and are the reference price used by the XAUT premium/discount gauge on this page. Bitfinex, as Tether's affiliated exchange, offers the deepest USD (not USDT) order book and is historically where large block trades settle.

On-chain DEX liquidity is concentrated almost entirely on Ethereum. The Uniswap v3 XAUT/USDT 0.05% pool (0x6546055…) holds several million dollars in concentrated liquidity and processes the majority of DEX volume. The Curve XAUT/PAXG pool provides a unique venue for gold-to-gold swaps — useful for anyone switching between the two tokenized gold standards without touching fiat. Tron XAUT does not have a meaningful indexed DEX market; it flows primarily through CEX order books.