Bitcoin lending platform Ledn has expanded its services to include Tether Gold (XAUt), allowing investors to hold tokenized assets and borrow against them in a similar way they can borrow against Bitcoin.
Ledn announced on Thursday that customers can utilize XAUt as collateral for loans instead of selling their shares for cash. Under the company’s existing lending model, customer collateral is held on a one-to-one basis and is not pooled, lent or used to generate profit.
Loans are originated and repaid in Tether USDT or USAt stablecoins and can be repaid at any time with no scheduled monthly payments. Tether launched USAt in the United States in January as a stablecoin designed under the GENIUS Act.
The launch expands the range of digital assets that can be used as collateral for a loan, giving investors another way to access liquidity without having to trigger a taxable sale. While Bitcoin-based lending has become a common feature of the cryptocurrency market, the addition of tokenized gold reflects growing efforts to bring real-world assets into digital asset financial services as gold prices hover near record highs.
The fresh products are being launched in most jurisdictions where Ledn operates, but are not currently available in Canada or the European Union.
Tether Gold’s market capitalization peaked at around $2.89 billion. Source: CoinMarketCap
Related: Tether is investing $150 million in Gold.com in its latest gold play
Tokenized goods are gaining popularity in the RWA market
The announcement comes as commodities play an increasingly critical role in the tokenization market. According to Token Terminal’s latest report, tokenized financial assets have surpassed $43 billion, with commodities accounting for almost 17% of the market.
Unlike commodity derivatives and futures contracts, tokenized assets like gold are backed by the underlying asset, giving holders direct ownership while enabling faster transfers and trading on blockchain networks.
Commodities have a larger share in the tokenization market.
Source: Token terminal
Tether Gold has benefited from this year’s rally in bullion prices, with the token’s market capitalization rising as gold rose to record highs above $5,600 per troy ounce. Since then, the price of the precious metal has fallen to around $4,300 an ounce, but remains unchanged this year.
Related: Crypto Biz: SpaceX is driving the next tokenization boom
