Tether stores $24 billion in gold inside a Cold War nuclear bunker in the Swiss Alps

Paolo Ardoino didn’t pick some shiny downtown vault to store billions in gold. He picked a nuclear bunker buried deep in the Swiss Alps. Built during the Cold War, it was designed to survive a nuclear blast.

Now it’s full of gold bars owned by Tether, hauled in every single week, one to two tons at a time. The place has thick steel doors, concrete walls, and enough security to scare off anyone dumb enough to try something. “It’s a James Bond kind of place,” Paolo said. “It’s crazy.”

Right now, Tether has around 140 tons of gold locked in that bunker. That’s $24 billion worth of metal. It’s the largest stash outside of central banks, ETFs, and major banks. And the pile is still growing. Last year alone, Tether bought over 70 tons. That’s more than most countries.

Only Poland reported buying more. And the company’s still going. “We will continue in this direction,” said Paolo, adding that they’ll check every quarter to decide if they need to slow down.

Tether steps into gold trading with new hires from HSBC

Tether isn’t just stacking gold. It’s getting ready to trade it. And it’s not hiring amateurs. When two top gold traders left HSBC, most people didn’t expect them to show up at a crypto firm. But that’s exactly where they landed. They now work at Tether, helping manage the company’s gold operations.

Paolo said the goal is to build “the best trading floor for gold in the world.” The company is planning to trade its own bullion, looking at arbitrage plays where futures prices are out of sync with physical ones. “We remain very long physical gold,” he said. That means they’re not flipping it for a quick buck, they want to hold it while still making money from the spread.

To pull that off, they’re buying gold from big players. Tether gets its metal from Swiss refiners and some of the biggest financial firms in the world. Buying nearly $1 billion a month in physical gold isn’t easy.

“One to two tons per week is a very sizable amount,” Paolo said. Sometimes a big order takes months to arrive. He’s looking for ways to speed that up.

Gold prices hit records as Tether ramps up weekly purchases

Gold recently blew past $5,200 an ounce, and Tether’s massive buys helped push it there. Analysts at Jefferies called the company a “significant new buyer” and said its entry into the market helped fuel demand.

But Tether wasn’t alone. Total gold purchases from central banks and ETFs topped 1,500 tons last year. Even so, Tether’s role wasn’t small.

John Reade from the World Gold Council said it clearly played a part. “They have been a component of the rally, but not all by any means,” he said. That’s fair. But buying 70+ tons of gold still makes waves, especially when it’s all being trucked into an underground bunker every week.

The secrecy around global gold buying makes Tether stand out. Countries like China report tiny purchases (27 tons last year), but most people in the market believe they bought much more. With Tether, there’s no guessing. It’s open about how much it buys and where it stores it. That’s rare.

Tether makes billions from its USDT stablecoin ($186 billion in circulation) and uses those dollars to buy gold and Treasuries. It’s part of a bigger plan. Paolo thinks global demand for real assets will keep growing. He even said he expects U.S. rivals to launch gold-backed alternatives to the dollar.

“We are soon becoming basically one of the biggest, let’s say, gold central banks in the world,” said Paolo. He said they’ll keep buying for now. Whether they pause later depends on how the market plays out.

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