Tether Launches Scudo, Bringing Fractional Gold Ownership On-Chain

Highlights:

• Tether has rolled out Scudo, a new initiative that will expand gold’s real-world applications.
• Scudo aims to tackle the challenges associated with dealing in fractionated gold.
• The new initiative will function within Tether Gold, without changing XAU₮’s original operations and settings.    

Stablecoin issuer Tether has launched a new feature called Scudo, designed to simplify the use of gold for everyday payment. Tether announced this initiative in a press release on January 6. It described Scudo as a new method of measuring value within Tether Gold (XAU₮). The launch comes as interest in gold and its price continue to rise.

Last year, high inflation, unclear interest-rate policies, central banks’ interest in gold investments, and growing demand for safer assets contributed to gold’s price spikes. Moreover, more people invested in gold to protect their finances as the value of fiat currencies dropped in many parts of the world. Tether believes now is the right time to bring back gold into daily use, not just as something people hold but something they can spend.

Introducing Scudo.
A new way to measure the value of gold on-chain. Scudo is a simple, intuitive unit that makes Tether Gold ( XAU₮) easier to use, track, and transact.

1 Scudo = 1/1000 of an XAU₮ (Gold Ounce), giving you a practical and accessible way to send and receive gold… pic.twitter.com/JLbhuUYTk2

— Tether Gold (@tethergold) January 6, 2026

Tether Aims to Solve Gold’s Pricing Challenges

For many investors, the problem with investing in gold has never been trust. Instead, it has always been usability. Pricing new assets in tiny fractions of an ounce often leads to significant confusion, which has negatively impacted gold’s adoption. Tether Gold already addressed some of these challenges by tokenizing physical gold into a digital asset that can be transferred online.

Aside from Tether Gold, the stablecoin issuer developed a technology layer called WDK. Developers, companies, and even Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems use this layer to create self-custody wallets that are compatible with any device. These wallets also support XAU₮, other stablecoins, and Bitcoin (BTC). 

Despite these inventions, dealing with decimal numbers has remained a major concern, and this is where Scudo comes in. Notably, Scudo will serve as a smaller unit. One Scudo is equivalent to one-thousandth of a troy ounce of gold, or one-thousandth of an XAU₮ token. Using whole or partial Scudo for payments eliminates these awkward fractions, making pricing and payments easier to understand. 

Tether has announced the launch of Scudo, a new unit of account for its tokenized gold, Tether Gold (XAU₮). Scudo simplifies gold pricing by defining 1 Scudo as 1/1000 of a troy ounce of gold, making it more intuitive and practical for everyday transactions. Tether stated that…

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) January 7, 2026

XAU₮ Adoption Continues to Soar as Tether Launches Scudo

Speaking on the latest initiative, Tether’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Paulo Ardoino, said gold and Bitcoin are proving to be trusted stores of value. He noted that user experience remains one of the biggest challenges in the adoption of digital assets, and Tether is committed to developing tools that will increase adoption, especially in emerging markets.

The CEO stated:

“XAU₮ makes gold digital, and now with Scudo, we are lowering the barrier to entry so that anyone can own, easily price, and transact even the smallest fraction of the historical world’s most trusted asset. User experience is still the most crucial weakness of the digital asset industry today.”

Meanwhile, Scudo will not change Tether Gold features, as it will remain fully backed by physical gold, with visible on-chain ownership through Tether’s tracking tools. Scudo will only change how gold’s value is measured, especially as the asset’s price continues to surge. 

As of December 2025, XAU₮ saw strong adoption from investors seeking to own gold without dealing with physical storage and custody challenges. Unlike traditional options, Tether Gold provides direct gold exposure with just a one-time fee for issuance or redemption