USDt market capitalization continues to rise, XAUt becomes the new highlight

Recently, Bloomberg pointed out in a cryptocurrency market analysis report that the rise of USDt is strong, and it is only a matter of time before it surpasses the market capitalization of Ethereum. Since March 12, multiple factors have driven the market capitalization of USDt to continue to climb, including the demand for margin trading from cryptocurrency traders, the use in certain gray industries, and the demand for USD in some countries and regions.

However, in addition to the highly watched USDt, Tether has also issued other asset-backed stablecoins, such as the euro-backed EURt, the renminbi-backed CNHt, and the gold-backed XAUt. Among them, despite being launched later, XAUt has performed the best.

According to data platforms, since XAUt was launched in late January of this year, its market capitalization has reached around 86 million USD in just over 4 months, with a 24-hour trading volume exceeding 110,000 USD. It is currently listed on 5 trading platforms.

The main reason for the rapid rise of XAUt is the safe-haven demand brought about by the global economic crisis. Each XAUt corresponds to one ounce of physical gold, allowing investors to conveniently gain exposure to gold through XAUt. Many industry insiders believe that XAUt has attracted investors interested in both cryptocurrencies and gold, especially against the backdrop of large-scale monetary easing by global central banks and the increasing risk of economic recession, where investors hope to hedge against risks through XAUt.

Compared to traditional gold investment tools, XAUt has some unique advantages: no custody fees, support for physical gold redemption, high divisibility, and 24-hour trading. These features have greatly facilitated the rapid development of XAUt.

Currently, multiple trading platforms have launched a variety of derivative trading around XAUt. The main trading varieties include perpetual contracts, leveraged trading, and margin trading. Some platforms also plan to introduce the Lightning Network to further enhance the trading efficiency of XAUt.

Despite the rapid development of XAUt, it is generally believed within the industry that it is difficult to become the next USDt. The main reasons include: the high volatility of gold prices, the issuance difficulty being higher than that of fiat stablecoins, and USDt has become the basic medium for cryptocurrency trading. However, there are also viewpoints suggesting that XAUt is expected to reach a market capitalization of hundreds of billions of dollars in the future.

The future development of XAUt still faces many challenges, such as shortages in gold supply and issues with the credibility of reserve audits. Whether Tether can successfully create a "digital gold" brand through XAUt still requires further market validation.