Etienne Note: I illustrated this Mises article on the K-shaped economy with some visualizations from our new book that we are announcing THIS WEEK: The Greatest Theft in Human History – How the Banks and “Government” Will Steal at Least $1.40 MILLION from the Typical Worker… “Legally.” You can get a free copy (domestic US) by becoming a member of our new censorship-resistant website here: https://artofliberty.org/become-liberty-member/
“Physical silver belonging to a Tether affiliate is being stored within Gold.com’s network”
Below are two tether stories. The first is about their Gold loan business, which is booming. The second is from our own analysis of Gold.com’s most recent 10k revealing they control and are trading Silver as well.
Tether’s $1.5 Billion Gold Loan Business Is No Joke
Tether has become a substantial source of financing in the physical gold market, extending approximately $1.5 billion in precious-metals financing to Gold.com, one of the largest bullion dealers in the United States. It is also trading and storing silver in a Las Vegas facility. We have both stories.
The scale moves Tether beyond its better-known role as the issuer of USDT and beyond simply accumulating physical gold. It is now using part of that gold position in transactions that resemble traditional bullion-market financing.
Bloomberg reported this week that Tether accounted for the majority of approximately $1.7 billion in precious-metals leases outstanding at Gold.com at the end of June. Gold.com owed approximately $1.45 billion in payables and advances to Tether at that point. The relationship has expanded quickly. At the end of March, Gold.com had disclosed roughly $362.6 million in precious-metals leases and customer advances involving Tether. Within approximately three months, the amount associated with Tether had increased by more than $1 billion.
The financing relationship followed Tether’s $150 million strategic investment in Gold.com earlier this year, which gave the stablecoin company roughly a 12% ownership position. The companies described that investment as part of a broader effort to connect physical bullion distribution with digital gold products, including Tether Gold, or XAU₮. Gold.com has since described precious-metals leasing from Tether as a significant source of financing and has said the companies intend to develop an integrated gold ecosystem spanning physical and digital markets.
How the Financing Works
This is not simply a conventional dollar loan secured by gold. Under a previously disclosed arrangement, Tether can provide LBMA Good Delivery gold bars through a precious-metals leasing facility. Tether retains ownership of the metal while Gold.com receives use of it for an agreed period. The facility carried an annual lease rate of 1.75%, with individual transactions permitted to run for as long as 18 months. At maturity, Gold.com must return the equivalent quantity and purity of gold, with settlement taking place in London.
For a bullion dealer, this can be an efficient form of working-capital financing. Rather than borrowing dollars and purchasing bullion outright, the dealer can borrow the metal directly, use it to maintain inventory or satisfy customer demand, and later return an equivalent quantity. This is an established function in the bullion market and has historically been associated with major banks and specialist precious-metals firms.
What is unusual here is the lender. Tether has accumulated enough physical gold to participate directly in that financing system.
Tether reported holding more than 146 metric tonnes of physical gold at the end of June. The company added approximately 14 tonnes during the second quarter, following purchases of roughly six tonnes during the first quarter and more than 21 tonnes during the final quarter of 2025. At June prices, the position was valued at approximately $18.8 billion.
The Gold.com relationship shows that Tether is no longer treating all of that bullion simply as a passive reserve asset. Gold that is leased into the market can also serve a funding and liquidity function while remaining an asset of the lender.
That is the important distinction. Tether is simultaneously accumulating bullion and developing ways to use that bullion within financial transactions. Its role increasingly combines elements of reserve ownership and wholesale gold financing.
From Gold Ownership to Gold Infrastructure
The development also fits with Tether’s expansion into tokenized gold. XAU₮ represents ownership interests in physical bullion held in custody, while Gold.com provides an established distribution network in the conventional bullion market. The leasing relationship creates another connection between those activities by placing physical gold into commercial circulation.
Tether should not be confused with a traditional bullion bank, which typically performs a much broader range of market-making, derivatives, custody, clearing and financing activities. But the leasing agreement demonstrates that it is now performing at least one function long associated with that market: supplying physical metal as financing to a major dealer.
The broader point is straightforward. Tether’s gold strategy is no longer limited to owning bullion. It is beginning to use that bullion within a larger structure connecting physical ownership, financing, distribution and tokenization. The $1.5 billion relationship suggests that the transition from owning gold to financing with gold is already underway.
What Bloomberg missed and we are happy to report is that this is not just a gold story. It is a silver story as well.
Exclusive: Tether Is Also Trading and Storing Silver in Las Vegas
After analyzing Gold.com’s most recent S-3 and 10k GoldFix notes the following…
Tether’s expansion into precious metals extends beyond gold. Regulatory filings show that a Tether affiliate is storing physical silver at Gold.com’s precious-metals facilities in Las Vegas while maintaining separate agreements to buy, sell and lease silver through the bullion dealer.
From Gold.com's most May 2026 S-3:
“a subsidiary of the Company and an affiliate of the Selling Stockholder entered into a Precious Metals Storage Agreement, dated March 24, 2026, pursuant to which the affiliate of Selling Stockholder is storing gold and silver at storage facilities of the Company in Las Vegas, Nevada and at other locations arranged through the Company”
Gold.com disclosed the relationship in a May SEC filing describing three agreements with Tether affiliates.
Become a Liberty Member for $5 a Month or $50 a Year and Get Perks
We moved off Substack since they were censoring us. You can read about it and see the evidence HERE.
We just spent $25,000 to build our own infrastructure so we can’t be silenced again.
We are widely exposing the MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION IN THE WORLD: The illegitimacy and criminality of “government,” monopoly media/academia and the algorithmic censorship of the DARPA Internet from a principled voluntaryist perspective of REAL Freedom, free markets, private property and peace.
Monopoly “Government” has been “The Biggest Scam in History” and has produced The Greatest Theft in Human History! The theft of $1.40 MILLION from the average worker through inflation, confiscatory taxation, and Social Security underpayment. Much more for higher earners! We have the only solution that gets the planet out of voting harder in easily rigged elections: The “One Way Revolution” of widely exposing the illegitimacy and criminality of organized crime “government!”
We are rebranding The Daily News from the Art of Liberty Foundation to Voluntaryist.News where we will continue to syndicate the best of the authentic, developing alternative media while keeping that service free for all as we migrate it from Substack.
Our weekly newsletter, Five Meme Friday, will remain free and continue to syndicate hard-hitting memes, the best of the alternative media, documentaries, censored videos, liberty events, truth music from the movement’s hottest artists, while covering the libertarian intentional communities and free private cities.
We are making Important News from the Art of Liberty Foundation, our investigative journalism and original writings “Paid Only,” and asking our readers to chip in just $5 per month to help cover our rising costs, which gets you access to the ePub and PDF copies of ALL of our books and the Liberator dropboxes!
Become a $50 Yearly member and get a free paperback copy of ANY of my books (or a Liberator), including our NEW book: The Greatest Theft in Human History – How the Banks and “Government” Will Steal at Least $1.40 MILLION from the Typical American Worker… “Legally.” It is the ONLY way to get a physical copy until October.
Become a Supporter ($125-$499), Sustaining Member ($500-$999), Patron ($1000 - $4999), Benefactor ($5000 - $24,999), or President’s Club member ($25,000+) and get perks ranging from signed, high-resolution hard copies, cool stickers, t-shirts, and even a one-day Art of Liberty conference + Turtle Party/Concert in your town with a VIP table for your friends and family!
Sign up here: ArtOfLiberty.org/Become-Liberty-Member
