Tether poached two top global precious metals traders from HSBC, leveraging its substantial financial resources to build a massive gold reserve and challenge the existing gold market structure. This article originates from an article by Jinshi Data, compiled, translated, and written by Foresightnews.
![图片[1]-The gold market is entering a new era of crypto! Stablecoin giant Tether poached two top precious metals traders from HSBC.-OzABC](https://www.ozabc.com/wp-content/uploads/cover-image-tether-hires-hsbc-precious-metals-traders-gold-market-expansion-800x533.webp)
CompleteTether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin, is hiring two top global precious metals traders from HSBC Holdings. Leveraging its substantial financial resources, the company plans to build a massive gold reserve to challenge the existing dominance in the gold market.
Sources familiar with the matter revealed that Vincent Domien, HSBC’s global head of metals trading, and Mathew O’Neill, head of precious metals financing for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, will join the cryptocurrency firm in the coming months. The sources requested anonymity as the information is not yet public, adding that both are currently within their notice period at HSBC.
In recent years, Tether has aggressively expanded in the precious metals sector, accumulating one of the world’s largest gold reserves—a reserve not held by banks or sovereign states, but part of its over $180 billion in reserve assets. HSBC is a giant in the precious metals sector, widely considered the industry leader after JPMorgan Chase, with businesses encompassing futures trading, vault storage, and global gold bar shipping.
Domian currently serves on the board of the London Bullion Market Association, the de facto standard-setting body for the global gold market. He joined HSBC from Societe Generale SA in 2019 and became Global Head of Metals Trading in 2022. O’Neill has been with HSBC since 2008.
In today’s increasingly competitive job market, the departure of these two individuals is a blow to HSBC’s precious metals business. This year, gold prices have achieved their best annual performance since 1979, breaking records one after another, prompting trading companies, hedge funds, and banks to expand their precious metals teams.
Tether’s flagship dollar stablecoin (USDT) includes gold in its reserve assets, and its latest reserve report shows that the company held gold worth over $12 billion in September. According to Bloomberg calculations, in the year ending in September, the El Salvador-based company added an average of over one tonne of gold per week.
This makes Tether one of the largest buyers of gold in the market—a figure that does not include its gold reserves in its gold stablecoin (XAUT) or its private gold investments made with billions of dollars of Tether’s profits. The company has also invested in other parts of the gold supply chain, including franchise companies.
USDT can be exchanged for US dollars at a 1:1 ratio, and its reserve assets mainly consist of US Treasury bonds and gold, among other assets. As for XAUT, according to Tether’s official website, its circulating market capitalization is approximately $2 billion, backed by about 1,300 gold bars.
Last year, Tether achieved a profit of $13 billion from its reserve assets, a level of profitability comparable to top Wall Street investment banks despite its small workforce. This year, the company expects to earn approximately $15 billion.
Tether’s growth has benefited from the rapid rise in gold prices this year. The rise in gold prices is attributed to continued gold purchases and trend buying by central banks, as well as so-called “devaluation trades”—a broad term referring to investors withdrawing from sovereign debt and its denominated currencies due to concerns that their value would erode over time.
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