Tether Gold (XAUT) has been approved as a spot commodity in Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).

Cointelegraph reported on Sunday that ADGM firms with the necessary regulatory approvals can now provide services related to the tokenised gold asset.

The approval follows ADGM's acceptance of Tether's dollar-pegged stablecoin USDt (USDT) as a fiat-referenced token. Tether has expanded the range of products brought under the regulatory umbrella in ADGM, one of the Middle East's major international financial free zones.

The key point is that tokenised gold products are being integrated into regulated services. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the designation makes the route clearer for regulated firms to offer XAUT. ADGM said the move will broaden the range of products and services that firms in the financial free zone can handle and support business growth.

Market indicators also show the expansion. DeFiLlama data show Tether Gold's total value locked rose more than threefold over the past year, to about $2.86 billion from around $826 million. This also confirms that demand for tokenised gold is shifting from trading and custody to broader uses.

The scope of real-world use is also growing. Bitcoin lending platform Ledn said around June it plans to add XAUT as loan collateral within this year. Clients will be able to borrow funds using their tokenised gold holdings as collateral without selling them.

This trend also aligns with the broader market for tokenised real-world assets. RWA.xyz puts the distributed value of tokenised commodities at about $4.46 billion, nearly 13 percent of the overall tokenised real-world asset market of about $34.73 billion. It means commodities are establishing themselves as a pillar of real-world asset tokenisation alongside real estate and bonds.

ADGM's decision can be seen as an example of expanding the scope for tokenised gold within regulated financial products. Tether has also brought gold-based digital assets, following stablecoins, into ADGM's regulatory framework, expanding its product base in the Middle East market. Attention is likely to focus on how many licensed firms will roll out services such as XAUT-based trading, custody and collateralised lending.