Tether is winding down Alloy and aUSDT: a strategic review of the product line.
On June 17, Tether officially announced the phased closure of the Alloy by Tether platform and its key asset, aUSDT. This instrument was a dollar stablecoin overcollateralized by tokenized gold, Tether Gold (XAUt). The decision was made based on an analysis of user activity, market demand, and the company's current strategic priorities.
Closure Timeline and Terms
The first phase of the wind-down began immediately after the interface update: opening new positions and issuing fresh aUSDT became unavailable. Existing clients have been given a three-month period to redeem aUSDT and withdraw the collateral XAUt. If users do not redeem their tokens by September 17, they will lose the ability to directly withdraw collateral through the platform.
Project History and Scale
Alloy by Tether was launched exactly one year ago, on June 17, 2024. The core idea of aUSDT was to create an overcollateralized dollar asset where the value of locked gold always exceeded the volume of issued tokens. Users could obtain dollar liquidity without selling their holdings of tokenized gold.
At the time of closure, Alloy's market capitalization was approximately $1.2 million, with reserves of 14.73 kg of gold, worth about $2.2 million. For context, the market value of XAUt reaches $3 billion, backed by 22,169 kg of the precious metal. Clearly, Alloy was a niche experiment that did not meet commercial expectations.
Strategic Context
Tether noted that Alloy helped test demand for gold digital assets and collateral products, as well as understand user behavior in the tokenization and real-world assets (RWA) segment. Resources will now be focused on developing XAUt and other priority areas of the ecosystem.
This is not the first reduction in the issuer's product line. In February, the company discontinued support for the CNHT stablecoin, pegged to the Chinese yuan, due to low interest and limited demand. In November 2025, Tether wound down EURT, citing regulatory conditions in Europe and a focus on the Hadron tokenization platform.
Expert Commentary
The closure of Alloy and aUSDT is a logical step for Tether, which is consistently optimizing its product portfolio. With a market capitalization of $1.2 million, the project was more exploratory than commercial. Given that the issuer's net profit for the first quarter of 2026 was $1.04 billion, such minor projects simply do not justify operational costs. The market expects Tether to concentrate on stablecoins and infrastructure solutions, rather than experimental niche instruments.