Elemental Royalty Corp. (TSX-V: ELE, NASDAQ: ELE), a publicly listed gold royalty company with a market capitalization of approximately $1.224 billion, has announced a groundbreaking move to offer its shareholders the option to receive dividends settled in Tether Gold (XAU₮). This marks the first instance of a publicly listed gold company providing such an option.
The company expects to declare an annual cash dividend of US $0.12 per common share, payable in quarterly instalments of US $0.03 per share. Shareholders who opt in will receive these payments in XAU₮ tokens instead of traditional fiat currency, providing direct exposure to the price of gold with the efficiency of digital settlement.
The initiative follows Tether's strategic acquisition of a one-third stake in Elemental Royalty last year. Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, hailed the development, stating that using XAU₮ for shareholder dividends "is a major step forward for the gold industry and shows how tokenized assets can unlock new financial models that were previously out of reach."
Tether Gold (XAU₮) is a tokenized asset where each token represents ownership of one fine troy ounce of physical gold stored in secure vaults in Switzerland. It is available as both an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain and a TRC20 token on the TRON blockchain. Holders have the right to redeem their tokens for physical gold bars, though redemption is only possible in increments of one full bar.
This announcement underscores the rapid growth of the tokenized gold sector, which has now surpassed a total market value of $5 billion, with XAU₮ leading in both volume and supply. The trend is largely driven by retail investors seeking gold exposure without traditional custodial intermediaries.
