Tether Fires HSBC Gold Traders Months After Hiring Them
Tether Holdings SA launched two senior valuable metals merchants it recruited from HSBC Holdings Plc simply months in the past.
The departures mark a sudden reversal for the stablecoin issuer, which had framed the hires as central to its ambitions within the international bullion market.
Why the Hires Mattered
Vincent Domien, HSBC’s former international head of metals buying and selling and a board member of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), joined Tether in late 2025.
Mathew O’Neill, who oversaw valuable metals origination throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa on the financial institution, adopted him.
Both have been recruited as a part of CEO Paolo Ardoino’s plan to compete instantly with banks like JPMorgan and HSBC in bullion buying and selling.
Ardoino had beforehand told Bloomberg the corporate wanted to construct the very best gold buying and selling flooring on this planet.
Tether has collected roughly 140 tons of bodily gold, saved in a former Cold War nuclear bunker in Switzerland.
That hoard is valued at roughly $24 billion, making the agency one of many largest identified holders of bullion exterior central banks, exchange-traded funds and business banks.
A Crypto Firm in a Commodities World
The fast turnaround raises questions on how easily a crypto-native firm can combine conventional commodities expertise.
Tether purchased over 70 tons of gold final yr, outpacing nearly every central bank besides Poland. The firm had additionally signaled it could actively commerce its reserves to seize arbitrage between futures and bodily costs.
However, the bodily gold market operates on long-standing relationships between banks, refiners, miners and sellers.
Bridging the hole between crypto treasury administration and institutional bullion buying and selling has confirmed tough.
Tether has not publicly defined the rationale for the departures. Neither Domien nor O’Neill has commented.
The firm continues to hold substantial gold reserves and points Tether Gold (XAUT), which accounts for roughly 60% of the gold-backed stablecoin market.
Whether Tether replaces the merchants or restructures its gold desk fully could sign how dedicated the agency stays to Ardoino’s imaginative and prescient of rivaling sovereign-scale gold holders.
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