Tether cites $3.3B ‘shareholder capital cushion’ in latest transparency report

Tether indicates that its $3.3 billion liquidity reserve surpasses the total circulating supply of USDT tokens

article-image

Formatoriginal / Shutterstock, modified by Blockworks

share

Tether, issuer of stablecoin USDT, revealed on Thursday that its assets have fallen slightly to $86.1 billion, down from $86.5 billion in July.

Total liabilities dropped to $82.8 billion from $83.2 billion last month.

The difference of $3.3 billion, or about 4% of its liabilities, Tether cites as a shareholder equity buffer in an update.

Tether issues USDT tokens across 15 different blockchains. Among these, the Solana ecosystem is pre-authorized for the highest value of issuance at $1.57 billion, followed by Ethereum and Tron with pre-authorized values of $617 million and $353 million, respectively, according to the latest update.

The transparency report from Tether supplements its quarterly reserve attestation, intended to address ongoing concerns about the stablecoin’s asset backing and liquidity.

The report doesn’t detail the composition of reserve assets backing USDT. Industry observers have questioned the reserves dwindling cash and bank deposits position which was down to $90.8 million as on June 30, from $481.3 million the previous quarter.

Tether agreed to a $41 million penalty from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for making inaccurate statements about its reserves in Oct. 2021. 

As part of a 2021 agreement with the New York Attorney General’s office, Tether committed to releasing quarterly reserve reports for a two-year period. The company said on its website that it fulfilled this obligation earlier this year.

After bringing on BDO Italia as its accounting firm, Tether said it would publish its financial reports monthly from the start of 2023.

No transparency reports from Tether have drawn regulatory scrutiny over the past two years.

Earlier this month, Tether said it decided to discontinue support for Kusama, Bitcoin Cash SLP, and Omni Layer implementation.

“While this shift signifies a transition, the focus will now be on directing resources toward the development of RGB, which is a client-side validated state and smart contracts system that operates on layer-2 and 3 of the Bitcoin ecosystem,” a spokesperson said.

Coinbase plans to remove USDT trading for Canadian users starting in September, citing compliance with listing standards.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

kamino cover.jpg

Research

Kamino has solidified its position as the leading money market on Solana and is emerging as a DeFi bluechip. Although DeFi competition is fierce, Kamino has kept iterating on its product to provide the best-in-class UX, paired with a robust risk management framework and battle-tested infrastructure. Given the rollout of Kamino Lend V2, the protocol may scale aggressively over the coming months, penetrating previously untapped markets in Solana DeFi.

article-image

Republican challenger Bernie Moreno captured the industry’s attention when he went up against a key member of the so-called “anti-crypto army”

article-image

Swan Bitcoin managing director John Haar is among those expecting that the election may only have a short-term impact on crypto markets

article-image

As part of the deal, Arcium will take over Inpher’s core team and technology: Lightspeed exclusive

article-image

Platforms like Polymarket and Drift’s BET show higher probabilities for a Trump victory, reflecting current market sentiments

article-image

While DAOs promote transparency and community involvement, underlying centralized mechanisms reveal the challenges in achieving full decentralization

article-image

Also in the tokenized fund space, Franklin Templeton launches on Base and Securitize hits $1 billion in tokenized RWA onchain