Why Tether launches a stablecoin backed by gold

Tether has announced a new stablecoin backed by gold, expected to be its second-biggest product ever. Its prospects rest on its distribution and integrations, which matter most for stablecoin liquidity, and on its track record of custodying over a hundred billion dollars of existing real-world asset collateral. Centralized control is described as superior to DAO-based governance, offering smarter decisionmaking and less principal-agent risk. The launch could also reduce Tether's alignment with the US government and expand crypto's onchain collateral base, as part of a broader tokenization platform.