Average Profit of $90 Million Per Person, The World's Largest Private Buyer of Gold

Original Author: Lin Wanwan, Dongcha Beating

A private company has become the world's largest holder of gold outside of central banks.

Paolo Ardoino has been very busy lately. He spends $1 billion per month, buys 1 to 2 tons of gold weekly, and says he "won't stop in the coming months."

Paolo is not a central bank governor of any country; he is the CEO of Tether, the world's largest stablecoin company.

The USDT issued by Tether is the world's largest stablecoin, with a circulating supply of approximately $187 billion. Its business model is extremely simple: you give it $1, it gives you 1 USDT token; you use the token for trading, and it uses the dollar to buy government bonds to earn interest.

In 2024, its net profit exceeded $13 billion. This team of about 150 people generated an average profit of approximately $86 million per person. Based on a net profit exceeding $10 billion in the first three quarters of 2025, the full-year profit is projected to reach $15 billion, surpassing Goldman Sachs. This year, Tether may achieve an average profit of $100 million per person.

But this company, which relies on the US dollar, has been doing something outside its core business over the past few years: hoarding gold like crazy.

Tether has hoarded about 140 tons of gold, worth approximately $24 billion. This figure exceeds the reserves of central banks in countries like South Korea, Hungary, Greece, Qatar, and Australia.

Tether has become the world's largest holder of gold outside of central banks.

At Tether's pace, its monthly gold purchases exceed $1 billion. With gold prices rising from around $2,650 at the end of September 2024 to over $5,100 now, Tether's paper profits far exceed $5 billion.

Ardoino once said, "Gold is logically safer than any national currency."

A large portion of Tether's users come from countries like Turkey, Argentina, and Nigeria, where currencies have been depreciating for a long time. They use USDT, essentially to escape their own central banks. Ardoino takes this logic one step further: what if the US dollar fails one day?

Selling dollars with one hand, hoarding gold with the other. He understands the risks better than anyone.

The Vault in a Nuclear Bunker, and Traders Poached from HSBC

The gold Tether buys is stored in a former nuclear bunker in Switzerland.

During the Cold War, Switzerland built about 370,000 nuclear bunkers to protect against atomic bombs; most are now abandoned. Tether converted one into a vault. Ardoino describes the place as "guarded by multiple layers of heavy steel doors, with over 1 ton of gold shipped in weekly," a "James Bond-style location."

Physical gold is not anyone's liability, does not rely on any government credit, and cannot be frozen, sanctioned, or printed out of thin air. It represents the oldest form of security.

But Ardoino's ambition goes beyond hoarding; he also wants to trade.

The global gold trading market is monopolized by large banks like JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, and Citigroup, which control pricing power and liquidity.

In November 2025, HSBC's Global Head of Metals Trading, Vincent Domien, and its Head of Precious Metals for Europe, Middle East, and Africa, Mathew O'Neill, both left. Both are top figures in the industry. Domien has served as HSBC's Global Head of Metals Trading since 2022 and is also a board member of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA); O'Neill has worked at HSBC since 2008.

Their new employer is Tether.

A crypto company poaching the top gold traders from traditional finance sent shockwaves through the City of London.

Ardoino said he needs "the world's best gold trading platform" to facilitate long-term gold purchases and "exploit potential market inefficiencies."

Buying about $1 billion worth of physical gold per month is actually quite troublesome; it involves solving a series of logistical challenges.

Currently, Tether "procures directly from Swiss refineries and also from large financial institutions, with a large order potentially taking months to arrive." They have no bargaining power in the supply chain; how much they can buy and when it arrives depends on others.

Building their own trading capability is to escape this passivity. If they can save 0.5% in trading costs, that's $60 million per year. More importantly, it's about gaining initiative.

From Central Bank to Gold Consortium

Tether's attitude towards gold is increasingly resembling that of a central bank.

Central banks favor gold for two reasons: it has good liquidity and is recognized worldwide, and it is not anyone's liability, thus not reliant on another country's credit.

Since Trump took office, constant tariff threats have driven the dollar to a three-year low. Meanwhile, central banks globally are increasing their gold holdings. The National Bank of Poland was the largest gold buyer among global central banks in 2024 and 2025, adding about 90 tons in 2024 and maintaining its lead in 2025. China, Russia, Turkey, India, and Brazil are also continuously adding to their reserves.

Tether is taking this trend to the extreme. It is doing what central banks do, but in a private manner. Jefferies analysts noted that Tether, as a "significant new buyer, may drive sustained growth in gold demand," with its purchases in Q3 2025 accounting for about 2% of global gold demand. A stablecoin company has become one of the drivers of rising gold prices.

But the plan goes beyond this. Tether is also quietly acquiring stakes in gold royalty companies.

Royalty companies purchase revenue streams from miners. Miners dig for gold, and royalty companies take a share of the proceeds, similar to collecting rent. The advantage is not having to mine themselves, avoiding extraction risks, and simply sharing in the profits.

According to Bloomberg, Tether has invested over $200 million to acquire approximately 37.8% of Elemental Altus Royalties, later adding another $100 million investment to support its merger with EMX. It also holds stakes in several mid-sized Canadian-listed royalty companies like Metalla Royalty, Versamet Royalties, and Gold Royalty.

This operation is led by Juan Sartori, Tether's Vice President of Strategic Projects.

A former Uruguayan senator, co-owner of the Premier League's Sunderland AFC, vice-chairman of AS Monaco FC, and founder of Union Group, his combination of identities—politician, businessman, football club owner, crypto executive—is highly international.

From downstream stablecoins, to midstream physical gold and trading capabilities, and upstream mining rights, Tether is building a complete gold industry chain, increasingly resembling a gold consortium.

Besides physical gold, Tether also has a gold-backed token called XAUT. Buying 1 XAUT corresponds to physical gold in a Swiss vault; if you want to withdraw, they can actually ship you a gold bar. Currently, XAUT holds about 60% of the global gold token market, with a circulating market cap of approximately $2.7 billion. By the end of 2025, XAUT was backed by about 16.2 tons of physical gold.

Ardoino predicts it could reach a circulating supply of $5 to $10 billion by the end of 2026. If it truly reaches $10 billion, it would require adding about 60 tons of gold reserves. Just to support XAUT, they would need to buy over 1 ton of gold per week.

He also made a prediction: "There are some countries buying a lot of gold, and we believe they will soon launch tokenized versions of gold as competing currencies to the dollar."

He didn't specify which countries. But everyone knows who has been buying gold like crazy in recent years.

Some Are Always Prepared with Their Own Vault

James Rickards, former Pentagon financial warfare advisor, wrote in *Currency Wars*: The foundation of currency competition is reserve competition.

In the 1960s, French Finance Minister Valéry Giscard d'Estaing complained that the US enjoyed an "exorbitant privilege," printing a few cents worth of paper that the whole world had to exchange for real gold and silver.

This game has been played for sixty years, relying on the world's belief in the dollar.

Trust can collapse very quickly. This is also the core logic of the reserve war.

The surface-level trade wars, tariff wars, and currency wars are merely external manifestations of monetary credit competition. The foundation of monetary credit lies in the quality of reserves.

As the dollar is repeatedly weaponized—freezing foreign exchange reserves, cutting off SWIFT channels, imposing financial sanctions—the world is forced to rethink: what kind of reserves are truly safe?

Central banks understand this, which is why they are quietly increasing holdings. Tether also understands this, which is why it is hoarding like crazy.

John Reade, Chief Strategist at the World Gold Council, said Tether's purchases affect gold prices, but are only a small part of the reason for the rise. He added, "What's really interesting is that one of the major players in the crypto space sees gold as the original dollar debasement trade."

In August 2025, Tether hired Bo Hines, former Executive Director of the White House Crypto Council under the Trump administration, as its US Strategic Advisor. During his tenure, Hines helped push the first US stablecoin regulatory bill, the Genius Act, through Congress. In January 2026, Tether launched USAT, a US-specific token compliant with that act.

Hoarding gold in a Swiss nuclear bunker with one hand, lobbying in Washington with the other—both hands are strong.

Gold continues to hit new highs, while the dollar falls to a three-year low. In an inconspicuous cave at the foot of the Swiss Alps, over 1 ton of gold is shipped in again, and the heavy steel door slowly closes.

The world is indeed becoming more turbulent, but some have already built their own vaults in advance.

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