Tether rolls out satoshi-style Scudo unit for its gold-backed XAUT token

Stablecoin issuer Tether has introduced Scudo, a new unit of account for its gold-backed token Tether Gold (XAUT), aimed at simplifying how users price and transfer fractional gold onchain.

Scudo is defined as one-thousandth of a troy ounce of gold, or one-thousandth of an XAUT. Rather than transacting in small decimal fractions of an ounce, users can denominate transfers and prices in whole or partial Scudo units, a structure Tether says is easier to work with in practice.

The model mirrors Bitcoin's use of satoshis, which allow users to transact in smaller, readable units of a full Bitcoin.

Tether said Scudo is intended to make gold-backed tokens more usable as prices rise, particularly for smaller transactions where fractional ounces become unwieldy.

Gold outperforms

The rollout follows a strong year for gold relative to other major assets.

Gold prices climbed to record highs in 2025, outperforming both equities and crypto markets. The S&P 500 gained a little over 16% in 2025, while bitcoin ended the year down roughly 6%. Spot gold peaked above $4,550 in late December and was trading around $4,485 in early January.

That outperformance has coincided with growing demand for tokenized gold products. Gold-backed tokens currently have a combined market capitalization of about $4.3 billion according to The Block price data, just below their December 2025 all-time high of roughly $4.4 billion.

XAUT remains the largest product in the category, accounting for around half of the sector’s total market value.

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