Tether Reports $3.2B Excess Reserves, but Lags in Reducing Secured Loans

Tether reported $3.2 billion of excess reserves backing the value of its stablecoins including USDT, according to its Q3 attestation released Wednesday.

Signed off on by accounting firm BDO Italy, the attestation disclosed $86.4 billion of assets in reserves as of September 30 against $83.2 billion in liabilities. Those $86.4 billion in assets included about $72.6 billion exposure to U.S. Treasuries such as direct T-bill investments, repurchase agreements and deposits in money market funds.

The assets also included $5.2 billion of secured loans, a reduction of $330 million from the previous quarter, but with much work left to be done if the company is to fulfill its December 2022 promise to reduce loans to zero in 2023.

Tether’s USDT is the most popular stablecoin, now boasting an $84 billion market capitalization. The company also issues a number of other digital currencies pegged to fiat currencies and gold.

Higher interest rates have made the business quite profitable, with the Tether saying quarterly returns on its holdings are once again close to $1 billion.

The firm recently announced the promotion of Paolo Ardoino as CEO. He has promised to work towards introducing real-time data about reserves in the coming years.