Financial Times reports that Tether (largest stablecoin company) is in discussions with gold mining and investment groups about investing Tether’s vast crypto profits into the gold supply chain, from mining and refining to trading and royalty companies. Tether runs the USDT token, which is pegged to the U.S. dollar, has a $168B mkt. cap., and generated H1 ’25 profits of $5.7B. Tether already holds $8.7B of gold bars in a Zurich vault and paid $105M for a minority stake in gold royalty company Elemental Altus (June). Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has likened gold to “natural bitcoin.” Ardoino said in May, “I know people think bitcoin is ‘digital gold,’ but I prefer to think in bitcoin terms—I think gold is our source of nature.”
Reuters reports foreign central banks now hold more gold than U.S. Treasuries (first time since 1996). Gold holdings also exceed total euro holdings, although still well short of total dollar holdings. At $3,500 per ounce, central bank gold holdings are worth $4.5 trillion vs $3.5 trillion of Treasuries. Treasury holdings now constitute 23% of total F/X reserves vs 27% for gold.
Sprott Physical Uranium Trust purchased 100klb on Thursday, bringing Q3 purchases to 1.3Mlb and its total uranium holdings to 68.9Mlb.
All eyes on August Employment Report @ 8:30 am (est. +75k payrolls, -258k two-month revision, and 4.3% unemployment rate). As important as today’s report has become, we are looking ahead to the BLS 2025 Preliminary Benchmark Revision (March ’24 – March ’25) next Tuesday @ 10 am.
