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.
© 2025 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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