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Sujha Sundararajan

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Sujha Sundararajan

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Sujha has been recognised as Women In Crypto 2024 by BeInCrypto for her leadership in crypto journalism.

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Last updated: 

July 8, 2025

Stablecoin issuer Tether has built a gold vault empire worth around $8 billion, stored in a private vault in Switzerland, CEO Paolo Ardoino told Bloomberg in an interview.

The USDT issuer directly owns the vast majority of about 80 tons of gold stockpile outright. However, precious metals represent only 5% of Tether’s $112 billion reserve portfolio, per the company’s March attestation.

“We have our own vault. I believe it’s the most secure vault in the world,” Ardoino noted, declining to reveal the whereabouts of the Swiss vault due to security concerns.

USDT stablecoin reached a market cap of $159 billion last month, claiming 62.43% of the entire $255 billion stablecoin ecosystem.

The company’s gold reserves match the UBS Group’s total precious metals and commodities exposure, the report added.

Tether Gold Reserves Signals Pivot From Pure Fiat Exposure

In Ardoino’s books, gold’s safe-haven status helps buffer against fiat or regulatory turbulence. He said that the precious metal is a safer asset than any national currency.

“Eventually, I think that if people start to get concerned about the potential increase of the debt of the US, they might look at alternatives,” he told Bloomberg.

Further, the recent surge in gold prices is fueled by central bank buying and a return of investor interest in gold ETFs, according to a report from J.P. Morgan.

“Every single central bank in the BRICS countries is buying gold,” Ardoino added.

Gold Reserves Could Lower Custody Costs

Tether has been widely known for its association with gold, launching a gold-based token, Tether Gold, that recently showed stable gains.

According to Ardoino, the company’s decision to own its own gold vault is due to the high costs that precious metal vault operators charge.

If Tether’s gold token were to grow to $100 billion in circulation, “it’s a lot of money to pay 50 basis points,” said Ardoino.

“If you have your own vault, eventually with the size, it gets much cheaper to do custody.”

In context: As Google users complain about the worsening quality of search results and GenAI integration, European organizations are working to plant the seeds of alternative solutions. One such initiative aims to build a public index to support new search engines and reduce Europe’s reliance on Google and Bing.

Early trials of the Open Web Index are set to begin next month. This emerging project could help European countries move away from dominant, ad-driven search engines. As US tech giants increasingly optimize search around generative AI and advertising, the OpenWebSearch.eu initiative seeks to foster nonprofit alternatives.

The Open Web Index itself is not a search engine. Rather, it functions like a digital library from which search engines can retrieve files and web pages. Major search providers rely on proprietary indexes, while smaller engines are often dependent on them. According to the Open Web project, this centralization gives companies like Google disproportionate control over the global web.

Regulators in the United Kingdom and European Union have consistently pushed back against American tech giants such as Apple and Google, particularly on issues involving search and artificial intelligence.

Meanwhile, users around the world have reported a steady decline in search quality. Website operators also argue that Google is discouraging users from leaving its ecosystem, and generative AI tools frequently struggle to deliver accurate information. Some groups believe developing Europe-based alternatives is part of the solution.

New: How AI Overviews Shift Traffic From Publishers to Google

It’s not enough that Google’s AI Overviews reduce clicks to publisher websites

Google designed these so that what few clicks remain lead to walls of irrelevant ads and/or bad search results

Link in pic.twitter.com/usrycPvTNS

– Cyrus (@CyrusShepard) May 8, 2025

To accomplish this, a 14-member consortium, including universities, data centers, tech companies, and CERN, aims to fund and build the infrastructure for a robust and publicly available web index.

Small and medium-sized companies could use it to build search engines, large language models, or other applications that don’t try to sell users ads, or at least operate independently of US giants such as Google and Bing.

The project also aims to promote applications that adhere to European regulations, values, and cultures. For example, EU-based search engines and LLMs would theoretically produce more reliable results in languages other than English. The consortium is also carefully considering how the index scrapes web content and how clicks impact search rankings.

The first open trial will be launched via a Zoom meeting on June 6, from 10 AM to noon CEST. Participants will gain access to roughly one petabyte of content. The completed Open Web Index is expected to host about five petabytes, with plans to scale to 10 petabytes in future iterations.

Financial services giant Goldman Sachs is reportedly predicting that the S&P 500 (SPX) will hit a new all-time high over the next 12 months amid improving market conditions.

In an investment note, analysts at Goldman raise their one-year target for the S&P 500 from 6,200 to a new record high of 6,500, reports Bloomberg.

According to a team led by chief US equity strategist David Kostin, the stock market index will rally about 11% from current levels after the White House announced an initial trade deal with China that massively reduces tariffs on both sides.

Says Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent,

“We have reached an agreement on a 90-day pause and substantially moved down the tariff levels — both sides, on the reciprocal tariffs, will move their tariffs down 115%.”

Goldman notes that the agreement between the two economic powerhouses has allayed recession risks and market uncertainty.

While Kostin’s team remains bullish on the stock market over the long term, Goldman strategists believe the recent S&P 500 rally may soon lose steam after hitting their three-month target of 5,900 on Monday. They remain cautious in the near term, warning that current conditions do not support a sustained market rebound.

“Already-optimistic market pricing of the economic growth outlook as well as uncertainty surrounding the magnitude of impending slowdown in economic and earnings growth will likely keep a ceiling on equity multiples during the next few months.”

As of Tuesday’s close, the S&P 500 is trading at 5,886.

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If you want to reduce the capital gains tax on your crypto this tax season, you can donate to Save the Children. Crypto donations help this 100-year-old charity provide vital care and services to impoverished and displaced children and their families, and crypto donors also receive favorable tax advantages in several jurisdictions, including the US.

“Save the Children is the largest independent child rights organization in the world,” explains Antonia Roupell, Partnership and Innovation Lead at Save the Children, “We work in over 100 countries.” Save the Children was also the first international NGO to accept a Bitcoin donation as far back as 2013 in response to a typhoon that struck the Philippines.

Fast forward 12 years, and crypto donations are par for the course. Most major US charities accept crypto, and according to a 2024 report by The Giving Block, more than $2 billion has been donated in the last five years. These organizations have realized the need to make donating as simple as possible. Save the Children accepts anonymous donations that can be made without going through cumbersome, antithetical KYC and AML checks. “It takes you less than 30 seconds to donate crypto,” Antonia says.

“There is also a massive tax incentive to donate if you are a US taxpayer because you reduce your capital gains.”

Save the Children doesn’t only accept Bitcoin but has moved with the times to make room for a burgeoning industry of DeFi tokens, meme coins, fan tokens, and more. “As long as your crypto is accepted by Gemini exchange, Save the Children will thank you for it,” Antonia confirms.

Save the Children’s crypto donations campaign HODLhope launched in 2021 and has raised more than $8 million today, predominantly in Bitcoin, Ether, and stables, with some DOGE, SHIB, and other alts in the mix.

“Save the Children also accepts stock and DAF donations. We are agnostic when it comes to what coin you want to donate because we directly convert all donations into a positive impact for children.”

Save the Children Beyond Crypto Donations

With crypto and other donations raised, Save the Children reaches millions of children each year with vital services such as providing safe zones in conflict areas and access to education, healthcare, mental health, and psychosocial support. However, the charity is not just present in crises and emergencies; its economic inclusion work spans the globe.

“From community banking to emergency financial support, a big part of Save the Children’s efforts is focused on empowering families through crash grants, providing parents with money to buy what their family urgently needs. They could be fleeing Ukraine or Sudan or simply in a remote area in Egypt without access to a bank account.

We understand that to reach more families in a more efficient and sustainable way, we need to innovate using the latest technologies. Bitcoin is proving to be a technology that cannot be ignored by humanitarian and human rights workers,” Antonia explains.

Empowering People to Become Self-Sufficient

“In the humanitarian context, it is not about Bitcoin, the asset, the hedge against inflation, or Bitcoin, the store of value. Rather we look at Bitcoin, the technology, Bitcoin, the medium of exchange, Bitcoin, the fully decentralized peer-to-peer value transfer. The people Save the Children supports don’t have bank accounts; they can’t afford to pay high transfer fees or wait for permission from third parties to access funds in an emergency.  In many respects, they understand the value of this technology better than anyone else because it solves major problems.”

Save the Children does not expect the people it serves to have a working knowledge of Bitcoin or keep their funds in Bitcoin. Being able to off-ramp into local cash as seamlessly as possible is essential. “Our role is to bring people what they need faster, more efficiently to enable them to become more financially independent.”

The charity is currently working with Bitcoin Layer 2s and announced a partnership with Fedi in 2024 to test on-chain cash assistance to community wallets using Bitcoin and Lightning. “We are very early, but we will be testing community custody,” she says. “It has huge potential In places where people live in small communities, and there is a high level of trust.” Why Bitcoin?

“One of the reasons is because you already have the liquidity in the market versus other cryptos. It’s open-source and the most secure blockchain. Fedi is interoperable with other applications, so if you want to use mobile money like M-Pesa in Kenya, you can.”

Antonia continues, “Education remains one of the biggest barriers to adoption. At Save the Children providing financial literacy is key, especially in the digital sphere when there are so many scams. Save the Children sees the huge potential for Bitcoin as a force for good and a force for financial inclusion.”

“We can’t solve today’s or tomorrow’s problems with yesterday’s solutions. Yesterday’s solution is an archaic financial system that is not built for financial inclusion and certainly not for people in crisis or emergencies.”

You can donate crypto to Save the Children. Your contribution helps provide essential resources, education, and hope to those who need it most faster and more efficiently. To contact Antonia’s team, email [email protected]. 

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