[Tether Gold Market Cap Surpasses $3.3 Billion, Safe-Haven Demand Drives Strong Inflows, Q1 Gold Reserves Grow by 36%] Odaily Planet Daily News – Tether Gold (XAUT) continued its expansion in the first quarter of 2026, with its total market cap surpassing $3.3 billion. Driven by record-high gold prices and heightened macroeconomic uncertainty, investor demand for safe-haven assets has risen significantly. Data from this quarter shows that its underlying gold reserves grew by 36% quarter-over-quarter, reaching approximately 707,747 ounces as of March 31. The circulating XAU₮ tokens are fully backed 1:1 by gold, with a total market cap of approximately $3.303 billion. It is reported that all XAUT gold reserves are stored in Swiss vaults and comply with the standards of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA). Each token corresponds to 1 ounce of physical gold and undergoes regular independent third-party audits for verification. Compared to the approximately 520,000 ounces of reserves at the end of 2025, this quarter's gold holdings have increased significantly, reflecting sustained capital inflows into digitized physical gold products. Amid high inflation and geopolitical risks, investors are accelerating their pursuit of programmable and highly liquid on-chain exposure to gold. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated that XAU₮ is demonstrating that tokenized commodities can meet institutional-grade reserve standards, enabling gold to maintain its physical backing while benefiting from the transparency and transferability brought by blockchain technology.