Tether launched Scudo on January 6, a new unit of account for its gold token XAU₮ designed to make tokenized gold easier to price and spend. The move aims to convert gold’s historic store-of-value role into a more liquid, transactional asset by enabling micro-denominations and broader technical integration.
Market and industry reports framed the rollout as a usability play: Scudo breaks XAU₮ into practical, payment-friendly units and sits alongside a developer-focused stack intended to speed merchant and wallet adoption.
Tether defined one Scudo as one-thousandth of a troy ounce — effectively 1/1,000th of an XAU₮ token — a change meant to simplify pricing and small-value transfers, according to coverage from MEXC and Bitget. By creating a ‘satoshi-like’ micro-unit for gold, Tether sought to remove a long-standing friction point for using gold in everyday transactions.
The company also emphasized that Scudo does not change XAU₮’s backing. XAU₮ remained fully collateralized by physical gold held in custody, the rollout notes, with the token supported by more than 1,300 gold bars and reported reserves of 116 metric tons valued at nearly $17 billion by the end of Q3 2025.
Infrastructure, use cases and market implications
Tether paired Scudo with a developer-focused technology layer to enable self-custodial wallets that handle XAU₮ along with other stablecoins and Bitcoin, according to industry reporting. That technical push targeted dApps, gaming platforms and micro-savings solutions where micro-payments and UX matter more than large, lump-sum units of gold.
‘Gold is once again proving its role as the ultimate store of value alongside Bitcoin,’ said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether. He added that Scudo lowers barriers to entry by making gold easier to own, price and transact, remarks carried in coverage of the rollout.
Analytically, fractionalization addresses a practical barrier: merchants and consumers price goods in small denominations, not ounces. By matching unit size to commercial flows, tokenized gold can compete for a distinct niche versus fiat-backed stablecoins — particularly in regions and use cases where gold functions as a hedge against local macro risks.
For traders and treasuries, the immediate questions are adoption and liquidity. Will Scudo increase on-chain turnover of XAU₮, and will merchant and wallet integrations follow the technical announcement? Observers will be watching on-chain flows, custody attestations and the pace of third-party wallet support as early indicators.
