Tether’s tokenized gold piles into DeFi as Aave takes the lion’s share

Gold has spent a few thousand years sitting in vaults doing nothing. Now a growing slice of it is being put to work on DeFi lending markets. Tether’s tokenized gold, XAUT, worth $94.6 million is now deposited across DeFi platforms, with Aave and Uniswap holding most of it. Where the gold is going Aave is doing most of the heavy lifting. Research data shows the lending protocol captured 74.2% of XAUT DeFi deposits, mainly through its V3 and V4 markets. Its growth curve has been steep. Aave’s XAUT deposits climbed from around $40 million in early June 2026 to approximately $76.7 million by mid-August. That works out to roughly 91.7% growth in about ten weeks. A separate snapshot in the research puts total XAUT DeFi deposits at $102.9 million across approximately ten venues as of early September 2026. That figure marked the first time deposits crossed the $100 million line. Within Aave, the newer V4 markets are pulling in fresh capital. V4 attracted about $8 million in net inflows over a 90-day period, while earlier venues saw money head for the exits. Uniswap remains the main decentralized exchange for trading the token. Its V3 pools held about $16.5 million in XAUT liquidity in mid-...