Ledn is adding Tether Gold to its lending offering, enabling holders of the tokenized gold product to use those tokens as collateral for loans in the same manner Bitcoin clients have on the platform since its 2018 launch.
The addition positions Ledn among the early lending platforms to extend gold-backed loans via a tokenized collateral model. Tether, described in the integration announcement as one of the world's largest private gold holders with roughly $23 billion in bullion, will place about $2.5 billion worth of its tokenized gold holdings onto the platform.
Under the arrangement, loans will be disbursed and repaid in Tether's USD₮ or USA₮ stablecoins. Borrowers will not face monthly payment obligations and retain the flexibility to repay their loans at any time.
Tether Gold is issued as XAU₮, with each token representing one fine Troy ounce of physical gold held in Swiss vaults. The structure is intended to place gold on the same digital infrastructure that has supported the growth of Bitcoin-backed lending.
Ledn's custody and product design emphasize a one-to-one backing model for collateral. The company said assets used as collateral under this program are held one-to-one and will never be lent out, used to generate yield, or deployed to fund the firm's business operations.
The products are scheduled to roll out today in the majority of the jurisdictions where Ledn operates, but Canada and the European Union are explicitly excluded from the initial availability.
Context and product mechanics
The integration supports collateralized lending where tokenized gold can serve the same functional role as other crypto collateral types on Ledn's platform. Loans settled in USD₮ or USA₮ provide a stablecoin native repayment method, and the absence of required monthly payments creates a repayment structure based on borrower discretion.
The custody model, with each XAU₮ token tied to one fine Troy ounce of gold stored in Swiss vaults, is central to the offering and is highlighted as the mechanism that brings physical bullion into a tokenized, tradable form.
Availability
The rollout is immediate for most of Ledn's markets today, with the explicit exceptions of Canada and the EU.
Reported by Hana Yamamoto