ADGM greenlights Tether Gold

Abu Dhabi's financial regulator has cleared the runway for gold-backed tokens to trade onshore. ADGM's Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) has recognized Tether Gold (XAUT) as an accepted spot commodity — a designation that lets ADGM-licensed firms offer the token to clients, subject to their own regulatory approvals, according to a statement on ADGM's website. Each XAUT token represents one troy ounce of gold held in a London Good Delivery bar.

Why it matters: The move builds on the FSRA's earlier recognition of Tether's USDT stablecoin as an accepted fiat referenced token, giving Tether two regulated product lines running through ADGM and licensed firms a clearer path to offer gold-backed tokens alongside stablecoins. It also lands as tokenized real-world assets keep climbing globally — the category now totals more than USD 31 bn in value, up from roughly USD 6.6 bn a year ago, per Tether's figures.

In context: Gold tokenization and fractional ownership has been gaining momentum against a bigger UAE-wide tokenization trend. Digital asset exchange application Fasset has rolled out a fraction digital gold solution, and fraction gold and silver ownership app O Gold has integrated its investment services with Botim.