Perfolio is a gold-backed lending platform. You buy gold (XAUT, where each token equals exactly 1 ounce of real physical gold stored in Swiss vaults), then borrow digital dollars (USDT, each worth exactly $1, convertible to your local currency) against your gold. No credit checks needed. No monthly EMI payments. No repayment deadlines. Your gold stays yours throughout. When you repay the loan, you get your gold back. It works like a modern digital gold pawn shop, but without the middleman, the paperwork, or the fees.

Gold (XAUT) is a digital gold token issued by Tether (the same company behind USDT stablecoins). Each gold token (XAUT) represents exactly 1 troy ounce of real physical gold, stored in LBMA-certified vaults in Switzerland. The gold reserves are independently audited every quarter by BDO Italia. Unlike gold ETFs, gold (XAUT) is redeemable for actual physical gold bars. Think of it as a digital certificate of ownership for gold in a vault: you own the gold, XAUT is your proof.

How does borrowing work?

Borrowing on Perfolio works in four simple steps. First, you buy gold (XAUT tokens) through the Perfolio app using your bank transfer or existing digital dollars (USDT). Second, you deposit your gold (XAUT) into the lending vault; think of this as locking your gold as security. Third, you receive digital dollars (USDT, worth $1 each) instantly, up to 77% of your gold's value. Fourth, you convert those digital dollars to your local currency (Indian Rupees, UAE Dirhams, Euros, etc.) and withdraw to your bank account. Your gold remains safely locked in the vault throughout. When you repay the loan, your gold is returned to you.

What interest rate will I pay?

Perfolio charges a variable interest rate starting from approximately 3% per year (APR, or Annual Percentage Rate). This means if you borrow $1,000 for a full year, you would pay about $30 in interest. The rate is not fixed; it goes up or down based on supply and demand in the lending market. You can see your current rate at any time in your Perfolio dashboard. There are no fixed monthly payments; interest accrues daily on whatever amount you have borrowed.

Are there repayment deadlines?

No. There are no repayment deadlines, no EMIs (equated monthly installments), and no fixed repayment schedule. You repay on your own terms, partially or fully, whenever you choose. You could repay after one week, one month, or one year. The only ongoing cost is interest, which accrues daily on your outstanding loan balance. Your gold collateral is returned to you as soon as the full loan amount plus accrued interest is repaid.

Where is my gold stored?

Your gold (XAUT tokens) represents physical gold bars stored in LBMA-certified (London Bullion Market Association) vaults in Switzerland. These are professional-grade precious metals storage facilities, the same standard used by central banks and institutional investors. The gold is fully insured. Tether, the issuer of XAUT, publishes independently audited reserve reports every quarter, conducted by BDO Italia, confirming that every gold token (XAUT) in circulation is backed by a real ounce of physical gold.

What fees does Perfolio charge?

Perfolio charges interest only on the amount you have borrowed, nothing else. There are no origination fees (fees for creating the loan), no account maintenance fees, no deposit fees, no withdrawal fees, and no hidden charges of any kind. You pay interest daily on your outstanding loan balance at the variable market rate, which starts from approximately 3% APR. If you borrow $1,000 for 30 days at 3% APR, you pay roughly $2.50 in total interest.

Is the lending protocol secure?

Perfolio uses an independently audited smart contract as its lending infrastructure. It is a non-custodial lending protocol deployed on Ethereum, one of the most widely used and tested blockchain networks in the world. Non-custodial means no single company (including Perfolio) can access or freeze your funds. The protocol has been independently audited by multiple leading security firms and handles billions of dollars in assets. All transactions are recorded publicly on the Ethereum blockchain, meaning you can verify every deposit, loan, and repayment yourself.

Is Perfolio a cryptocurrency app?

No. Perfolio is a gold lending platform that uses blockchain technology under the hood, similar to how Uber uses GPS technology, but you don't need to understand GPS to take a ride. You interact with gold and money, not with cryptocurrency. The blockchain ensures your transactions are transparent, secure, and instant.

What is USDT and how do I use it?

USDT (Tether USD) is a digital currency worth exactly $1. Think of it as digital dollars that you can send anywhere instantly. When you borrow on Perfolio, you receive USDT. You can then convert USDT to your local currency (Indian Rupees, UAE Dirhams, Euros, British Pounds, and more) through Perfolio's licensed payment provider and withdraw to your bank account.

What does 'digital gold' mean?

Digital gold means you own a token that represents real physical gold stored in a vault. Instead of keeping gold bars at home or in a bank locker, you hold a digital certificate (XAUT token) that proves you own that gold. The advantage: you can buy fractional amounts (as little as $10 worth), trade 24/7, and use your gold as collateral for instant loans. These are things you can't do with physical gold.

How does the lending technology work?

Perfolio's loans are powered by an audited smart contract, which is automated banking software that runs on the Ethereum blockchain. Instead of a bank officer processing your loan (which takes days and involves paperwork), the smart contract processes it in seconds with no human intervention. The protocol has been independently audited by multiple leading security firms and handles billions of dollars in loans.

What is LTV (Loan-to-Value)?

LTV stands for Loan-to-Value ratio. It's how much you can borrow relative to your gold's value. Perfolio allows up to 77% LTV. Example: if your gold is worth $10,000, you can borrow up to $7,700. The remaining $2,300 acts as a safety buffer in case gold price drops. A lower LTV means a safer position.

What happens if gold price drops while I have a loan?

If gold price drops significantly, your loan may become under-collateralized (meaning your gold is no longer worth enough to back your loan). In this case, the lending protocol may automatically sell some of your gold to repay part of the loan. This is called liquidation. Perfolio shows your 'health factor' in real-time so you can take action before this happens: either add more gold collateral or repay part of your loan.

Do I need to understand blockchain or crypto to use Perfolio?

Not at all. Perfolio is designed for people who want to use gold as a financial tool, not for crypto experts. You buy gold, you borrow money, you repay when you want. The blockchain technology works in the background to make everything faster, cheaper, and more transparent, but you never need to interact with it directly.

What Is XAUT? Tether Gold Tokenized Bullion Guide

Gold (XAUT) is a digital token issued by Tether, where each token represents exactly one troy ounce of physical gold stored in professional vaults in Switzerland. When you hold gold (XAUT), you hold a legally documented claim on a specific, identified gold bar, verifiable at any time on the Ethereum blockchain. This guide explains what Tether Gold is, how it works, how the reserve is audited, and why it has become the dominant form of tokenised bullion used as collateral in DeFi lending.

The Problem Gold Solves, and the Problem It Creates

Gold has functioned as money and a store of value for roughly five thousand years. It is scarce, physically durable, chemically stable, and not controlled by any government or central bank. In every major currency crisis in recorded history, gold has preserved purchasing power while fiat systems around it collapsed or were debased.

But physical gold has a practical problem that limits its use in modern finance. You cannot send it over the internet. You cannot use it at 2 AM on a Sunday when your loan needs to be topped up. You cannot divide a one-kilogram bar into $200 increments to pay a supplier. Physical gold is a magnificent store of value and a terrible payment and collateral instrument for the digital age.

Tokenised gold solves this problem by creating a digital representation of physical gold that inherits the metal's value properties while gaining blockchain-native capabilities: instant transfer, 24/7 availability, fractional divisibility, and composability with automated lending contracts (smart contracts).

What Exactly Is Gold (XAUT)?

Gold (XAUT) is an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain issued by Tether Operations Limited, the same entity that issues USDT, the world's most widely used stablecoin. Each gold (XAUT) token is backed by one troy ounce of LBMA-good-delivery gold.

LBMA good-delivery status is the gold industry's highest quality standard. Bars meeting this standard weigh between 350 and 430 troy ounces, contain at least 99.5% pure gold, and are produced by refiners on the London Bullion Market Association's approved list. Every bar backing gold (XAUT) meets this specification.

The gold is physically held in professional vaulting facilities in Switzerland, operated by Tether's custodial arrangements through third-party vault operators. Each bar backing XAUT tokens is identified by serial number, refiner, assay certificate, purity percentage, and weight. Token holders can query the Tether Gold website or use on-chain tools to verify which bar, or portion of a bar, backs their tokens at any given moment.

How the Audit Process Works

The reserves backing gold (XAUT) are audited by BDO Italia, an independent accounting and assurance firm. BDO conducts quarterly attestations confirming that the total physical gold in vaults matches or exceeds the total XAUT tokens in circulation. These attestation reports are published on the Tether website and are accessible to anyone.

The audit process is important context for understanding the trust model. It is not a real-time proof system like a fully on-chain reserve proof. The attestations confirm the reserve state as of a specific date, with a lag of weeks between vault verification and report publication. This is an audit model, not a continuous proof-of-reserve model. For most holders and lenders, quarterly third-party attestation by a Big Four-adjacent firm is a sufficient level of assurance.

Tether also publishes the list of vault locations and the number of bars held, though not the full bar manifest by serial number in real-time in the public domain. The token-level bar lookup is available through the Tether Gold website for individual holders who want to verify their specific allocation.

Gold (XAUT) on Ethereum vs TRON: Which Chain?

Gold (XAUT) exists primarily as an ERC-20 token on Ethereum mainnet. Tether has also issued XAUT on the TRON blockchain (TRC-20 standard), though the Ethereum version is more widely supported across DeFi protocols, exchanges, and wallets.

For DeFi lending purposes, including Perfolio's borrowing vault, the relevant token is the Ethereum ERC-20 version. This version benefits from Ethereum's deep liquidity, wide exchange support, and the composability that allows gold (XAUT) to be used as collateral in smart-contract-based lending protocols.

How Gold (XAUT) Compares to Other Tokenised Gold Products

Product	Backing ratio	Issuer	Chain	DeFi composability	Audit frequency
Gold (XAUT)	1 token = 1 troy oz	Tether Operations Ltd	Ethereum, TRON	High	Quarterly by BDO Italia
PAXG (Pax Gold)	1 token = 1 troy oz	Paxos Trust Company	Ethereum	High	Monthly attestations
DGX (Digix Gold)	1 token = 1 gram of gold	Digix (dormant)	Ethereum	Low (limited liquidity)	Variable
AUX (Auxesis)	Varies	Various	Multiple	Low	Variable

Gold (XAUT) and PAXG are the two dominant tokenised gold products with meaningful liquidity and DeFi integration. PAXG has slightly more frequent attestations and US regulatory oversight via Paxos's New York trust charter. Gold (XAUT) has higher liquidity on most global exchanges and is the collateral type used exclusively on Perfolio, which was designed and optimised specifically for this asset.

Fractional Ownership: Buying Less Than One Ounce

One of tokenised gold's practical advantages over physical gold is divisibility. Physical gold comes in fixed increments: half-ounce coins, one-ounce bars, ten-ounce bars, one-kilogram bars. Buying fractional amounts requires specific retail products with higher premiums over spot price.

Gold (XAUT) is divisible to six decimal places on Ethereum. You can own 0.001 XAUT, representing approximately $3 worth of gold at current prices, with no additional cost above the blockchain transaction fee. This makes fractional gold ownership genuinely accessible at any investment size.

On Perfolio, the minimum loan is $10, and there is no minimum collateral deposit other than the practical constraint of needing enough gold to borrow the minimum. A borrower could theoretically deposit $13 of gold (XAUT) and borrow $10 against it at 77% Loan-to-Value (LTV). This accessibility is not possible with physical gold loans, which have effective minimums in the thousands of dollars.

How to Acquire Gold (XAUT)

Gold (XAUT) is available through several channels:

Centralised exchanges

Most major crypto exchanges including Kraken, Bitfinex, and others list gold (XAUT) with USDT, USD, and BTC trading pairs. Spreads are typically narrow on liquid markets, in the range of 0.05% to 0.15% over spot gold price.

Decentralised exchanges

Uniswap and other Ethereum-based decentralised exchanges maintain XAUT-USDT liquidity pools. Slippage for typical retail trade sizes is minimal. Larger purchases may want to compare DEX prices against centralised exchange prices.

Directly through Perfolio

Perfolio allows users to purchase gold (XAUT) directly within the app using bank transfer or digital dollars (USDT). This is the most straightforward path for new users who want to acquire gold and immediately use it as collateral.

Direct redemption from Tether

Tether allows direct purchase and redemption of gold (XAUT) for large quantities, typically with a minimum of 50 troy ounces for direct institutional transactions. Retail buyers will generally use exchange channels.

Why Gold (XAUT) Is Perfolio's Collateral of Choice

Perfolio is built around gold (XAUT) for structural reasons that go beyond simple asset availability. Gold is historically the lowest-volatility major store of value. Its price moves are significantly smaller than Bitcoin, Ethereum, or other crypto assets, which means a given LTV ceiling carries less liquidation risk. This allows Perfolio to offer 77% maximum LTV, higher than most general-purpose DeFi lending protocols that cap collateral ratios lower to account for higher-volatility assets.

The combination of lower volatility, audited Swiss vault backing, high on-chain liquidity, and transparent reserve attestation makes gold (XAUT) the most defensible collateral in the tokenised asset universe for a conservative lending protocol. Perfolio is the world's first gold-native financial platform, and that specificity comes from designing around these properties from the start.

What Happens to Your Gold (XAUT) When You Borrow on Perfolio

When you deposit gold (XAUT) as collateral (your gold deposit that secures the loan) on Perfolio, the tokens are transferred from your wallet to an audited automated lending contract (smart contract) on Ethereum mainnet. You no longer hold the tokens in your wallet during the loan period, but you retain the right to receive them back upon repayment. The smart contract is non-custodial (you keep control of your gold) in the sense that no human party, including Perfolio itself, can access or redirect your collateral. Only the contract's liquidation logic or your own repayment transaction can move those tokens.

Digital dollars (USDT) are credited to your wallet immediately upon loan initiation. Interest accrues on the outstanding balance at the current variable rate typically under 5% APR. When you repay, the contract calculates the total owed including accrued interest, accepts the digital dollars (USDT), and releases the gold (XAUT) collateral to your wallet in the same transaction or the one immediately following.

Understand the mechanics fully? Explore the Perfolio loan product, or start by reading how Perfolio works step by step.