Bybit and Tether (USDT) announced a joint promotional campaign on Thursday offering more than $1 million in rewards tied to Tether Gold (XAUT), a tokenized gold product backed 1:1 by physical bullion held in Swiss vaults.
The initiative, called "Golden Season," comes as cryptocurrency sentiment has deteriorated sharply and the broader tokenized gold market has grown to over $6 billion.
Bybit said it plans to expand XAUT integration across its trading, savings, and structured-yield products, and separately introduce up to $10 million in additional stablecoin- and real-world asset-linked yield products in March.
All figures are Bybit's own projections and have not been independently verified.
What Happened
The "Golden Season" program will offer trading rewards, referral incentives, and limited-time yield pools linked to XAUT. Helen Liu, Co-CEO of Bybit, said the exchange wants to give users "practical ways to seek stability" during a market downturn.
The cryptocurrency Fear & Greed Index had recently touched extreme-fear territory, according to the companies.
Bybit claimed in January 2026 to hold approximately 15.75% of total XAUT trading volume across centralized exchanges, making it the top venue for the token at that time, based on CoinGecko data.
XAUT currently trades at around $5,131, down from all-time highs near $5,500 reached in late January, and has recently traded at a roughly 2% discount to the spot price of the underlying gold.
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Why It Matters
The tokenized gold sector has grown rapidly, with XAUT and PAX Gold (PAXG) together accounting for roughly 97% of the segment's $6 billion market capitalization as of mid-February 2026.
Spot gold rose over 64% in 2025 - its largest annual gain since 1979 - driven by central bank accumulation, inflation concerns, and geopolitical uncertainty, according to Bybit's own analysts.
The campaign is, at its core, a customer acquisition and retention effort by Bybit. Whether $1 million in rewards materially deepens XAUT liquidity or user retention on the exchange remains to be seen.
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