Tether's gold-backed token XAUt has received Shariah certification from Amanah Advisors, a move designed to open the door for adoption among Islamic financial institutions and investors seeking gold exposure that complies with religious finance principles.
Each XAUt token represents one troy ounce of physical gold held in Swiss vaults. As of a March 31 report, the token was backed by more than 707,000 troy ounces of gold worth over $3.3 billion. Onchain data from RWA.xyz now puts the token's circulating asset value at approximately $2.5 billion, up sharply from roughly $700 million in July 2025.
What the Certification Covers
Amanah Advisors found that XAUt satisfies core Islamic finance requirements, citing full backing by physical gold, the absence of interest and leverage, and transparent reserves as the basis for its determination. Those criteria are central to Shariah-compliant finance, which prohibits interest-bearing instruments and requires that financial products be backed by tangible, verifiable assets rather than speculative claims.
For a token like XAUt, meeting those standards effectively certifies it as a digital proxy for physical gold ownership rather than a derivative or leveraged instrument, a distinction that matters for institutions bound by Shariah investment mandates.
Targeting New Regional Markets
Tether is positioning the certification as a gateway into markets it has historically had limited direct access to. The company expects adoption to grow across the Gulf Cooperation Council, South Asia, and parts of Africa, regions with substantial populations for whom Shariah compliance is a prerequisite for adopting new financial products.
The move also reflects a broader pattern of tokenized real-world assets seeking religious-compliance certification as a distribution strategy. Palm Azgar Finance has pursued a similar path with its PUSD stablecoin, explicitly targeting what it describes as the more than $3 trillion Islamic finance market.
Part of a Wider Regulatory Push in the Gulf
The certification arrives as regulators in the region continue building out formal crypto licensing frameworks. Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority recently issued its 50th virtual asset service provider license, a sign of the pace at which the emirate has been formalizing oversight of digital asset businesses.
Together, the growth of XAUt's backing to $2.5 billion and its new religious-compliance certification suggest Tether is betting that gold-backed tokens, rather than its flagship USDT stablecoin, may be the more natural entry point for Shariah-observant capital moving into tokenized assets.
