Tether’s gold-backed token XAUt has secured Shariah certification from Amanah Advisors, a development that Tether says could make its tokenized gold product more accessible to Islamic financial institutions and investors seeking Shariah-compliant exposure to physical gold.

According to Tether, the certification concludes that XAUt’s design aligns with core Islamic finance requirements: the token is fully backed by physical gold, it does not involve interest-based mechanics, avoids leverage, and maintains transparent reserves disclosures. Tether states that each XAUt token corresponds to one troy ounce of physical gold held in Swiss vaults.

Key takeaways

• XAUt has received Shariah certification from Amanah Advisors, positioning it for wider use by Shariah-focused institutions.
• Tether says the token is fully backed by one troy ounce of physical gold per XAUt, stored in Swiss vaults.
• The company highlights compliance features commonly required in Islamic finance, including no interest and no leverage.
• Reserve reporting shows XAUt is already one of the more established tokenized gold offerings, with backing exceeding 707,000 troy ounces as of March 31.
• Onchain metrics compiled by RWA.xyz indicate XAUt’s asset value has risen sharply since mid-2025.

Why Shariah certification matters for tokenized gold

For investors and institutions operating under Shariah principles, the challenge is often less about whether gold is permitted, and more about how a financial product is structured. Islamic finance typically emphasizes restrictions around interest, excessive uncertainty, and speculative leverage—conditions that can affect whether certain tokenized products are considered acceptable.

Tether’s certification directly targets that gatekeeping issue. By obtaining formal Shariah certification for XAUt’s structure, Tether is signaling that its tokenized-gold model is designed to meet the expectations of Shariah-governed decision makers—potentially reducing friction in markets where Shariah compliance is not optional.

In its announcement, Tether said it expects the certification to support adoption in regions where Islamic finance is widely used, including the Gulf Cooperation Council, South Asia, and parts of Africa.

XAUt’s backing and growth in tokenized gold

Tokenized gold only becomes practically useful to mainstream users if the underlying asset is credibly secured and consistently disclosed. Tether points to reserve reports published on its website as evidence of ongoing backing and transparency.

In Tether’s most recent reserves reporting, the company said XAUt was backed by more than 707,000 troy ounces of physical gold, worth over $3.3 billion, as of March 31. That matters because Shariah certification alone does not address the operational question of whether there is sufficient physical backing behind token issuance.

Beyond reserve disclosures, market interest in the product appears to be growing onchain. Data cited from RWA.xyz shows XAUt’s onchain asset value rose from roughly $700 million in July 2025 to around $2.5 billion. While onchain valuations do not replace physical reserve verification, they do offer a window into how widely a tokenized asset is being held and used across blockchain-based venues.

Shariah-compliant digital assets move from niche to organized offerings

Crypto has long faced questions from Islamic scholars about whether certain digital assets can comply with Shariah principles. The debate has often focused on whether participation in the asset introduces prohibited elements such as interest, excessive uncertainty, or speculation.

In recent years, however, more structured products have emerged that attempt to address those issues directly rather than leaving compliance to interpretation. The broader trend appears to be an industry shift toward token designs that emphasize asset backing, transparent reserve models, and reduced exposure to interest-like returns.

Earlier coverage from Cointelegraph noted that Shariah-compliant approaches have been pursued in different ways. For example, a Bahrain-based group, AlAbraaj Restaurants Group, adopted a Bitcoin treasury strategy and said it planned to develop Shariah-compliant financial instruments to broaden access to Bitcoin across the Islamic world.

More recently, Palm Azgar Finance expanded its Shariah-compliant PUSD stablecoin to ADI Chain, positioning the product for participation in what it described as the $3 trillion Islamic finance market. PUSD is designed to allow transactions to settle using either a dollar-linked asset or a dirham-denominated token on the same infrastructure.

Alongside individual product efforts, regulatory clarity has also been a factor in regional expansion. Dubai has been highlighted as a leading crypto hub in the Middle East, continuing to grow its regulated digital asset framework. Cointelegraph previously reported that Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) issued its 50th virtual asset service provider license earlier this month, surpassing the number of licensed crypto firms in Hong Kong and Singapore.

What to watch next after Amanah Advisors’ certification

With Shariah certification in place, the next question is adoption: whether Islamic banks, funds, and Shariah-governed investors will translate compliance approval into measurable purchasing and integrations for XAUt. Readers should watch for subsequent announcements from Tether or ecosystem partners describing where XAUt will be offered, how it will be distributed through compliant channels, and whether reserve reporting continues to meet the transparency expectations that underpin Shariah assessments.

Armstrong and others say autonomous software agents will eventually execute far more daily transactions than humans. Because digital programs cannot open bank accounts or wait days for wire transfers, real-time crypto and blockchain represent the only alternative.

In his post, Armstrong said Coinbase plans to anchor this ecosystem, which he dubbed Agentic Finance (AiFi). The crypto trading platform is using the x402 protocol, which it developed and is now governed by the x402 Foundation, along with its Base blockchain and Circle Internet’s USDC stablecoin to power these automated payments. Coinbase deployed AI agent accounts that can trade and spend in June. Last week, it said Coinbase Business users would be able to accept AI agent payments via x402.

However, industry builders note that moving money at machine speed requires fixing structural bottlenecks across the entire tech stack.

“Agents don’t just need money, but they need money that moves at machine speed,” said Tory Green, CEO of decentralized network io.net, on Monday in a comment on Armstrong’s post. “Our whole financial stack has evolved for the human interface. Money’s just the first rail that has to catch up. Same story coming for compute, data, all of it.”

Other developers warn that giving unvetted code direct access to financial assets exposes it to massive counterparty risk.

Securitize expanded its regulated US platform after its capital subsidiary registered with the SEC, while SECZ shares fell nearly 10% on Monday.

Securitize Capital becomes an SEC-registered adviser

Securitize said Monday that its subsidiary, Securitize Capital LLC, has registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission as an investment adviser.

The registration became effective on July 22, according to the SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure database. The Miami-based business had operated as an exempt reporting adviser in Florida since March 2023.

That earlier status generally restricted the unit to advising venture capital funds or private funds with less than $150 million in US assets under management. Full registration removes those limits but brings additional disclosure, compliance, recordkeeping and examination duties under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.

“Becoming an SEC-registered investment adviser is an important step in the continued expansion of Securitize’s platform,” co-founder and CEO Carlos Domingo said.

“Asset managers and institutional investors want to work with partners that understand both the opportunity of tokenization and the obligations that come with operating in regulated markets.”

The company noted that registration does not represent an SEC endorsement or indicate a particular level of skill or training.

SEC status expands Securitize’s US regulatory stack

Securitize Capital’s registration completes a broader group of regulated services covering the issuance, management and trading of tokenized securities.

Securitize Markets operates as an SEC-registered broker-dealer and runs an SEC-regulated alternative trading system. Other affiliates provide transfer-agent and fund-administration services. FINRA also approved Securitize Markets in May to custody tokenized securities and support atomic settlement.

The expanded structure could allow Securitize to work more closely with asset managers building onchain vaults, lending products and other portfolio strategies. The company reported more than $5 billion in assets under management as of July across products linked to BlackRock, Apollo, BNY, Hamilton Lane, KKR and VanEck.

BlackRock’s BUIDL tokenized Treasury fund accounts for about $2.6 billion of that total.

The registration follows SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce’s July 22 warning that managing certain vaults and lending strategies may create investment adviser obligations. Peirce urged businesses operating within the securities market to engage with the regulator while developing compliant onchain products.

SECZ falls despite Citi’s bullish price target

SECZ shares fell over 10% during Monday trading to about $6.76, giving Securitize a market capitalization of slightly under $1 billion per data from Yahoo Finance. The decline extended the stock’s losses since its New York Stock Exchange debut earlier in July.

Citi analyst Peter Christiansen separately initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a $10 price target. The target represented about 34% upside from Friday’s closing price of $7.47.

Christiansen described Securitize as important infrastructure for real-world asset tokenization but identified several risks. These included the company’s reliance on BlackRock’s BUIDL fund, exposure to interest-rate changes and uncertainty over the development of higher-margin transaction revenue.

Securitize pushes IPOs and public stocks onchain

Securitize entered public markets on July 2 through a merger with Cantor Equity Partners II that generated about $400 million in gross proceeds. It also tokenized its own SECZ shares on the listing date.

Cantor and Securitize later announced a July 15 partnership designed to incorporate blockchain infrastructure into IPOs and follow-on stock offerings. Cantor will provide capital-markets and trading services, while Securitize will manage the issuance, distribution and servicing of tokenized securities.

Unlike products that create blockchain representations of stocks already trading on exchanges, the arrangement would place onchain infrastructure within the original securities issuance process.

Hanwha Group has also emerged as Securitize’s largest shareholder. SEC filings show that the South Korean conglomerate controls 15.69 million shares through affiliated entities and investment vehicles, equal to a 9.6% stake.

Securitize is also working with the NYSE on infrastructure for the exchange’s planned tokenized securities platform. The adviser registration gives the company another regulated US entity as it expands from issuing tokenized funds into portfolio management and public-market settlement.

Bitcoin’s BTC$64,979.79 options market has turned notably less defensive over the past month, unwinding the downside protection traders built up in June just as the Federal Reserve prepares to meet.

The put/call ratio on open interest, which measures how much of the market is positioned in puts, contracts that pay off when the price falls, against calls, which pay off when it rises, has dropped to roughly 0.52 from about 0.76 in late June, according to Glassnode.

Calls are gaining share, the pattern of traders stepping back from hedging rather than adding to it. Recently, large traders have been accumulating $70,000 strike calls and bull call spreads, signaling expectations of upside in the spot price.

The 25-delta skew, the premium traders pay for downside protection relative to equivalent upside exposure, has fallen to around 4% at the one-week tenor while three- and six-month contracts hold at 11% to 12%. That indicates traders are still paying for insurance against something going wrong later this year, but have largely stopped paying for it this week.

On Friday, a clever startup manufactured a viral media story about a Brazilian rancher securing a $19,600 loan by tokenizing 10 cows.

However, omitted from the subsequent wall-to-wall media coverage was some very inconvenient context, such as the rancher’s seat on the board of a state-backed ranching fund, his massive herd, and plentiful access to traditional, real estate-based financing.

When the story hit social media on Friday, crypto influencers applauded blockchain technologies extending credit to a farmer in need.

Unfortunately, this feel-good story falls apart under the slightest scrutiny.

Firstly, the rancher’s expansive, multi-generational real estate exceeds 1.3 square miles, and as of the most recent estimates, had over 500 cows alongside other operations.

Even if the herd size hasn’t grown, the 10 animals in Friday’s announcement represent a mere 4% of the dairy’s more than 240 lactating cows.

Secondly, trade press profiles identify the operator of the farm, Fazenda Engenho Velho, as civil engineer João Guilherme Brenner whose family has owned the land for generations.

Unlike many farmers and ranchers who rent their land, his family owns its land outright and, as such, has access to conventional, real estate-based financing.

A president, director, and seven-figure rancher

In 2022, a magazine interview documented the rancher’s election as president of Paraná’s Holstein breeders association and his appointment to the board of directors of the Brazilian state’s livestock development fund.

His 10 Holstein cows in Imbituva, Paraná secured a credit note this week, worth roughly $19,700.

Despite that loan of 1% the value of his dairy’s land, press outlets gushed about “one of Brazil’s first uses of tokenized livestock as loan collateral.”

Press coverage soared past a million views through posts about tokenization ostensibly allowing farmers to access financial lifelines.

For context, Paraná’s agriculture department prices farmland of the Imbituva municipality at 23,200 to 126,900 Brazilian reais (BRL) per hectare across every soil classification except its worst.

Anywhere within that price range, Guilherme Brenner’s 360 hectares are worth millions of US dollars.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has asked a federal court to expedite its ruling against Minnesota before the state’s prediction-market ban takes effect on Aug. 1.

CFTC presses court as Aug. 1 deadline approaches

The CFTC requested expedited handling of its motion for a preliminary injunction, according to its latest court filing. The regulator said a decision is needed before Minnesota’s new law takes effect later this week.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed the measure in May. It makes creating, operating, facilitating, or advertising a prediction market in the state a criminal offense.

The CFTC sued Minnesota on May 19, arguing that the state law interferes with the federal derivatives framework established under the Commodity Exchange Act. The agency asked the court to block enforcement while the wider legal dispute proceeds.

A hearing has already taken place, but the judge has not ruled on the preliminary injunction request. The Commission said it would treat the motion as constructively denied if the court neither issues a decision nor temporarily stays the law by July 28.

In that event, the regulator plans to seek interim relief from the federal appeals court.

Kalshi and Polymarket join request for temporary stay

Kalshi and Polymarket have filed separate challenges seeking to stop Minnesota from enforcing the ban. Both platforms joined the request for a temporary administrative stay while the court considers their preliminary injunction motions.

The companies also indicated that they would treat their motions as constructively denied if the court does not act by the stated deadline. They could then pursue relief at the appellate level alongside the CFTC.

The dispute centers on whether event contracts offered through federally regulated exchanges fall exclusively under the CFTC’s authority or may also be restricted through state gambling laws.

Minnesota considers prediction markets a form of gambling that can expose residents to addiction and financial harm. CFTC Chair Michael Selig has taken the opposing position, arguing that Minnesota’s law would turn federally regulated operators and participants into felons.

For U.S. users, the ruling could determine whether access to prediction markets depends on their state of residence. A decision favoring Minnesota may also encourage other states to pursue direct bans or enforce gambling rules against event-contract platforms.

CFTC tightens oversight of event-contract filings

The court fight does not mean the CFTC supports unrestricted prediction markets. The agency has also increased its scrutiny of how registered exchanges introduce new event contracts.

As crypto.news previously reported, the CFTC issued its second warning of the year on July 24 over broad, template-style self-certification filings. Its Division of Market Oversight instructed exchanges to provide contract-specific terms, settlement procedures, data sources and compliance analysis.

Designated contract markets may still use self-certification to list qualifying contracts without waiting for advance Commission approval. However, the regulator said one filing cannot cover an open-ended range of contract variations unless it includes enough detail for each product.

The advisory shows that the federal-state dispute concerns regulatory authority rather than whether prediction markets should operate without oversight. The CFTC maintains that federally registered platforms must follow the Commodity Exchange Act and the agency’s rules, including product-level disclosure requirements.

Federal prediction-market framework gains support

The Minnesota case comes as the CFTC considers broader rules for event contracts. Its proposal would guide reviews of contracts linked to gaming, war, terrorism, assassination and conduct that violates federal or state law.

The public comment period closed on July 27. Hyperliquid Policy Center and Multicoin Capital submitted a joint filing supporting written federal standards.

The groups argued that exchange-traded contracts differ from traditional wagers because participants trade with each other rather than against a bookmaker.

“A bet with a bookmaker is a wager against the house: the house sets the odds and wins when you lose. An exchange-traded contract is a trade between two willing participants at a market price, and the venue’s business is matching that trade for a fee, whichever side wins.”

Hyperliquid Policy Center and Multicoin said forcing registered platforms to comply with 50 separate state gambling regimes would fragment the federal market structure. Minnesota maintains that states retain authority to protect residents from products they view as unlicensed gambling.

The immediate question now rests with the federal court. A ruling or temporary stay before Aug. 1 would preserve current access while the litigation continues, while no action could send the CFTC, Kalshi and Polymarket directly to the appeals court.

The cuts come as the crypto industry grapples with a prolonged downturn. After three consecutive quarters of declines, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization fell to around $2.1 trillion at the end of the second quarter, while trading volumes weakened and retail participation slowed amid higher interest rates, geopolitical uncertainty and persistent outflows from crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF).

U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs recorded a combined $6.9 billion of net outflows in May and June. While flows have recovered in July, including a six-day streak of inflows, the rebound remains modest relative to the withdrawals seen during the broader market downturn.

Uphold stressed that it is not closing its U.K. operations or any of its international offices, adding that all locations remain fully staffed and operational.

The firm’s enterprise platform enables banks, fintechs and broker-dealers to integrate digital asset services for their own customers, an area the company said is seeing rapid growth.

The momentum in that business, combined with weaker retail demand, made the restructuring necessary as it shifts personnel and investment toward enterprise products. Further growth announcements are expected in the coming months, the company said.

The firm remains bullish on the long-term outlook for the retail market. “In 2026, we’re expanding our popular consumer app into a multi-asset, blockchain-enabled financial companion,” McLoughlin said. “By year end, the app will offer US stocks, tokenized securities, asset-backed lending, credit cards, prediction markets and enhanced DeFi yield opportunities on assets including XRP,” he added.