Precious-Metals Royalties Firm to Pay Dividends in Tether’s Tokenized Gold

A Canadian precious-metals royalties company has announced a first-of-its-kind dividend initiative that bridges traditional commodity finance with blockchain-based digital assets.

Elemental Royalty, which earns revenue by acquiring royalty interests in mining projects, said it will allow investors to elect to receive dividend payments in the form of Tether Gold (XAUT) tokens rather than standard cash payouts. This marks what appears to be the first time a publicly traded royalty firm tied to precious metals is offering dividends denominated in tokenized gold.

Tether Gold is a digital asset backed by physical gold held in secure vaults, giving XAUT holders direct exposure to the metal’s price without needing to buy or store physical bullion themselves. Each token represents ownership of one troy ounce of London Good Delivery gold, with provenance and auditing standards intended to mirror conventional gold bullion markets.

Under the new program, shareholders of Elemental Royalty will still have the option to receive dividends in cash, as traditional dividend models dictate. But the tokenized option offers a novel way for investors to align their returns with gold price movements while leveraging the flexibility and portability of blockchain-based assets.

Elemental’s stock dipped in trading on the announcement day, but the company said the dividend choice reflects its vision of integrating traditional commodity value with emerging digital financial infrastructure. By linking dividend payouts to a token that is backed by physical gold, the firm aims to offer investors both the long-standing store-of-value appeal of gold and the efficiency of tokenized settlement and transfer.

The move also highlights the growing trend of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) — such as commodities, real estate, and other traditional holdings — being brought onto blockchain platforms. By adopting tokenized gold for dividend distribution, Elemental Royalty is pushing the boundaries of how corporate payouts can be structured and potentially expanding the use cases for gold-backed digital tokens beyond trading and speculation.

For Tether, which built its reputation on dollar-pegged stablecoins, the expanded use of XAUT in corporate finance underscores its strategy to broaden tokenized asset applications. As gold prices have risen and investor appetite for alternative forms of bullion exposure grows, tokenized products like XAUT are gaining traction among both retail and institutional users.

This initiative could pave the way for other resource-sector companies to explore similar token-based dividend options, blending traditional financial returns with the advantages of blockchain technology and real-world asset tokenization.