SS #29 - Stablecoin Giant Tether Weighs Deeper Gold Exposure

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Good Morning.

A strong week for stablecoins is underway. Tether is reportedly exploring a deeper move into the gold industry, with plans that could extend into mining. CEO Paolo Ardoino has clarified that no Bitcoin will be sold to fund this expansion. What a relief, given the potential market shock if the world’s largest stablecoin issuer offloaded its holdings. Meanwhile, Hyperliquid is preparing to launch its own stablecoin, USDH, with several early participants already showing interest in the project.

Stablecoins continue to gain traction among retail users, recently hitting a new all-time high in retail transfer volumes. Momentum in this sector remains strong and stay informed with Stablescope, delivered straight to your inbox.

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In Today's Edition:

• Headline: Stablecoin Giant Tether Weighs Deeper Gold Exposure

• Quick Bites: Hyperliquid to Launch USDH

• Yield of the Week: 226.67% APY in USDC on Drift

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HEADLINE

Stablecoin Giant Tether Weighs Deeper Gold Exposure

State of play: Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, is considering a deeper move into the gold industry, spanning mining, refining, and trading.

• Tether already holds significant gold reserves, including 250,000 Tether Gold (XAUT) tokens backed by 7.66 tons of gold.

• The company has previously taken a 33% stake in Elemental Altus Royalties Corp., signaling an appetite for gold-linked ventures.

• Industry insiders express skepticism about Tether’s strategy, calling its entry into the conservative gold sector surprising and unconventional.

What’s Next: If Tether proceeds, it could expand its reserves with direct gold exposure, reinforcing its stability narrative. At the same time, crossing into commodity markets is likely to draw heightened scrutiny from regulators and traditional finance.

Why it Matters: Tether’s move highlights the convergence of digital assets and hard commodities. By integrating gold into its strategy, it could reshape perceptions of stablecoin reserves while raising questions around oversight, risk, and transparency.

Our Take: Gold investments may help Tether project long-term stability and diversify beyond traditional assets. However, without a clear strategy, the move risks being dismissed as opportunistic. Success will depend on execution and openness, both to win trust in crypto circles and to ease concerns from traditional markets.

QUICK BITES

• Hyperliquid to launch USDH.

• Stripe and Paradigm introduce Tempo.

• Fireblocks launches stablecoin payments network.

• Stripe CEO explains why businesses are turning to stablecoins.

• Tether CEO dismisses suggestions company sold bitcoin to buy gold.

• Stablecoin retail transfers break records in 2025, hit $5.8B in August.

• Paxos, Frax, and Agora fight for Hyperliquid's USDH stablecoin contract.

• Ethena jumps 12% after treasury firm StablecoinX secures $530M investment.

YIELD OF THE WEEK

Lucidly syUSD: 27.18% APY

• syUSD is a USDC-denominated yield token available for minting on Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, and Katana, with deposits supported in USDT, USDC, or USDS.

• The token aims to deliver risk-adjusted stablecoin yields, managed on the Lucidly stack with a medium-to-long-term horizon and exposure limited to blue-chip collaterals.

• Vault allocations include leveraged lending positions on platforms such as Morpho and Aave V3, with strategies selected by the Lucidly team to balance execution costs and returns.

Lighter LLP: 62.11% APR

• LLP is a protocol-managed, community-owned liquidity pool that supports Lighter through market-making strategies and liquidation handling.

• Lighter applies tiered margin requirements across its markets, which determine leverage limits and trigger different actions when accounts fall below required levels.

• The pool operates with a 0% operator fee and reports a Sharpe ratio of 6.21.

Hyperwave HLP: 10.84% APR

• Hyperwave HLP introduces the first liquid HLP primitive, enabling yield from Hypercore to flow directly into HyperEVM through tokenized HLP deposits.

• hwHLP is minted from stablecoins, HYPE, wHYPE, or UBTC deposits, which are converted into USDC and allocated to the Hyperliquidity Provider Vault (HLP).

• Redemptions typically settle within ~1 day if vault liquidity is sufficient; otherwise, withdrawals may take up to 5 days, with no fee unless a direct swap is made (0.05% fee).

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Disclaimer: All the information presented in this publication and its affiliates is strictly for educational purposes only. It should not be construed or taken as financial, legal, investment, or any other form of advice.