Tether Statistics 2026: Reserves, Supply, and Audit Data

Tether held $187,751,426,411 in total assets on 30 June 2026, against total liabilities of $183,641,897,215, of which $183,622,105,630 related to digital tokens issued. US Treasury bills alone accounted for $114,960,963,604 of that reserve, carrying a weighted average maturity of less than 90 days. The Tether statistics below come from the attestation reports themselves, alongside on-chain supply data for stablecoins.

The interesting movement in 2026 is not the supply line, which has been close to flat all year. It is the cushion sitting on top of it. Tether reported a record excess reserve buffer of $8,232,209,778 at 31 March 2026. Three months later, the same measure stood at $4,109,529,196, while net operating profit for the quarter reached approximately $1.50 billion.

Key Takeaways

• Tether’s excess reserve buffer fell 50.1% in a single quarter, from a record $8.23 billion at 31 March 2026 to approximately $4.11 billion at 30 June 2026.
• Short-dated government exposure dominates the reserve: US Treasury bills plus overnight and term reverse repurchase agreements total $140,579,944,966.
• Secured loans stood at $13,453,749,726, larger than bitcoin and public equities combined at $9,563,069,573, making the least liquid line bigger than the two diversification assets together.
• Tron and Ethereum together hold 90.4% of USD₮ in circulation, at $92.2835 billion and $73.4297 billion, respectively.
• USD₮ represents 58.94% of the $311.15 billion stablecoin supply tracked by DefiLlama, roughly 2.5 times the size of the second-placed issuer.
• Circulating supply multiplied more than 58 times between year-end 2019 and year-end 2025, then settled at $183.3801 billion on 6 September 2026.
• Gold reached $18,838,357,171 of the reserve at 30 June 2026 while bitcoin sat at $5,801,630,681, widening gold’s lead over bitcoin from the Q3 2025 snapshot.

Editor’s Choice

• Total reserve assets reached $187,751,426,411 at 30 June 2026.
• Approximately $184.6 billion in USD₮ was issued at the end of Q2 2026, around $446 million above the Q1 figure.
• KPMG U.S. issued an unqualified audit opinion on the 2025 financial statements on 13 August 2026.
• Audited reserves exceeded liabilities by $6.814 billion for the year ended 31 December 2025.
• Direct and indirect exposure to US Treasury bills reached approximately $141 billion, ranking Tether the 17th-largest holder of US Treasuries globally.
• The CFTC ordered a civil monetary penalty of $41 million against Tether for untrue or misleading statements about USDT.

Tether Statistics on Reserves: What Backs USDT

Figures are compiled from 10 primary sources: Tether’s own attestation and audit announcements, the BDO assurance report published with the Q2 2026 figures, DefiLlama’s stablecoin dashboard, and settlement documents from the CFTC and the New York Attorney General. Publication dates run from February 2021 to September 2026. Only official filings and original data dashboards qualified. Figures are updated when the underlying sources publish new editions.

• The reserve backing fiat-denominated Tether tokens totalled $187,751,426,411 across eleven asset categories at 30 June 2026.
• Cash equivalents and other short-term deposits made up a subtotal of $140,642,627,095 of that figure.
• US Treasury bills together with overnight and term reverse repurchase agreements account for 74.88% of total reserve assets.
• Non-US Treasury bills contributed only $22,374,689 and corporate bonds only $8,711,171, leaving both categories immaterial against the total.
• Gold in the reserve was valued using an XAU price of $4,008.02 per ounce, the Bloomberg closing price on 30 June 2026.
• Bitcoin was valued using a price of $58,642.15 per coin, also the Bloomberg closing price on that date.

Source: BDO ISAE 3000R assurance report, Tether International, 30 June 2026

USDT Circulating Supply Growth

• USD₮ circulating supply stood at $183.3801 billion on 6 September 2026 across all chains tracked by DefiLlama.
• Approximately $184.6 billion in tokens was issued at the end of Q2 2026, around $446 million higher than at the end of Q1.
• Supply multiplied 58.5 times between year-end 2019 and year-end 2025.
• Supply rose 35.6% in 2025.
• The series contains one contraction year, 2022, when supply fell from $79.33 billion to $66.26 billion.
• Tether attributed the Q2 increase to continued issuance despite a decrease in the industry’s total market capitalisation.
• Supply at this scale is inseparable from where it trades, which is visible in crypto exchange market data and in the concentration shown by crypto exchange market share.

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Recent Developments

• KPMG U.S. issued an unqualified audit opinion on Tether International’s 2025 financial statements, announced on 13 August 2026.
• As part of that audit, KPMG physically counted and inspected every individual gold bar held by the company rather than relying solely on custodian reports.
• The Q2 2026 attestation, prepared by BDO and covering the position at 30 June 2026, reported reserves exceeding liabilities by approximately $4.11 billion.
• Tether reduced its secured lending exposure by approximately $2.38 billion, a 15% reduction, during Q2 2026.
• The company reported that its global user base grew by more than 30 million during the quarter.
• USA₮, a separate dollar-backed token built for the United States federal framework, launched on 27 January 2026.

USDT Supply Distribution by Blockchain

• TRON carried $92.2835 billion of USD₮ on 6 September 2026, the largest balance of any chain.
• Ethereum held $73.4297 billion on the same date.
• Tron’s USD₮ balance runs 1.26 times the size of Ethereum’s.
• BSC ranked third at $9.1840 billion, ahead of Solana at $2.7658 billion.
• No chain outside the top four held more than $0.8312 billion of USD₮, the Arbitrum balance.
• Newer venues carried smaller balances, with Plasma at $0.6361 billion, Aptos at $0.6320 billion, and TON at $0.6058 billion.
• Chain concentration of this shape also shapes settlement patterns visible in DeFi market data.

By the numbers: Tron carried $92.2835 billion of USD₮ on 6 September 2026 against Ethereum’s $73.4297 billion, according to DefiLlama’s stablecoin dashboard. The majority of the world’s largest dollar-pegged token therefore settles outside the Ethereum ecosystem, which matters for anyone modelling redemption paths or chain-level censorship exposure.

Tether’s Share of the Stablecoin Market

• DefiLlama tracked $311.15 billion of total stablecoin circulating supply on 6 September 2026.
• USD₮ accounted for $183.389 billion of that figure, or 58.94%.
• USDC ranked second at $74.689 billion, or 24.00% of the tracked market.
• USD₮ circulating supply runs 2.46 times the size of USDC.
• Sky Dollar, Dai and Ethena USDe followed at $6.593 billion, $4.810 billion and $4.351 billion respectively.
• Tether separately reported that USD₮ market share extended to over 60% of the total stablecoin market as of 30 June 2026.
• The relative position of Tether and USDC has held steady through 2026, and the wider on-chain stablecoin market has grown around both.

The two figures above do not reconcile, and the reason is the measurement basis rather than disagreement. DefiLlama counts a specific tracked universe of issuers; Tether’s own figure rests on its internal definition of the total market. Treat them as two answers to two slightly different questions.

Who is the largest holder of stablecoins?

Tether is the largest issuer rather than holder, at $183.389 billion of USD₮ in circulation on 6 September 2026. Individual holder balances are not published by any issuer, so no verified ranking of holders exists. The measurable ranking is by issuance, where USD₮ leads USDC by roughly 2.5 times.

What are the top 5 stablecoins?

By circulating supply on 6 September 2026, the five largest are USD₮ at $183.389 billion, USDC at $74.689 billion, Sky Dollar at $6.593 billion, Dai at $4.810 billion, and Ethena USDe at $4.351 billion. The top two hold 82.9% of the tracked market between them.

Excess Reserves and Quarterly Profit

• Excess reserves reached a record $8.23 billion at 31 March 2026.
• That buffer stood at $4.11 billion at 30 June 2026.
• The buffer contracted by 50.1% across the second quarter.
• Net profit for Q1 2026 was approximately $1.04 billion.
• Net operating profit for Q2 2026 reached approximately $1.50 billion, led by the US Treasury and repo portfolio.
• Year-to-date net profit had surpassed $10 billion by the end of Q3 2025, when the buffer stood at $6.8 billion.

How does Tether make money?

The reserve itself generates the income. Net operating profit of approximately $1.50 billion in Q2 2026 came primarily from the US Treasury and reverse repurchase portfolio. The tokens that portfolio backs, by contrast, pay nothing to holders. Gold and bitcoin positions add mark-to-market gains and losses on top of that base.

Tether’s US Treasury Exposure

• Direct and indirect exposure to US Treasury bills amounted to approximately $141 billion at 31 March 2026.
• That level ranked Tether as the 17th largest holder of US Treasuries globally.
• Exposure had reached an all-time high of approximately $135 billion at the close of Q3 2025.
• Tether Group’s position sits ahead of sovereign holders including Germany, South Korea, and Australia.
• Direct US Treasury bill holdings recorded in the reserve table stood at $114,960,963,604 at 30 June 2026.

Source: Tether attestation reports and BDO assurance report, 2025 to 2026

Gold, Bitcoin and Secured Loans in the Reserves

• Precious metals, consisting of LBMA standard physical gold bars, stood at $18,838,357,171 at 30 June 2026.
• Bitcoin holdings stood at $5,801,630,681 on the same date.
• Secured loans, the least liquid category in the reserve, stood at $13,453,749,726.
• Other investments stood at $5,244,911,675 on the same date.
• Public equities stood at $3,761,438,892, the smallest of the five charted reserve lines.
• Secured loans exceed bitcoin and public equities combined by $3,890,680,153.
• At the Q3 2025 snapshot, the two sat closer together, with gold at $12.9 billion and bitcoin at $9.9 billion, together about 13% of reserves.
• Tether reported adding 14 tons of physical gold during Q2 2026.

Why it matters: Secured loans reached $13,453,749,726 in Tether’s reserve at 30 June 2026, against $5,801,630,681 in bitcoin and $3,761,438,892 in public equities, per the BDO assurance report. The least liquid line in the reserve is therefore larger than the two market-traded diversification assets combined, which is the composition detail most summaries of the attestation leave out.

Tokens Issued Versus Tokens Outstanding

• The total gross contractual redemption value related to all digital tokens issued equalled $184,588,527,295 at 30 June 2026.
• Tokens held by the company but not in its treasury wallet amounted to $808,077,231 and form no part of the company’s assets or liabilities.
• Contractual redemption value takes into account a redemption fee of 10 basis points.
• Liabilities relating to digital tokens issued were reported at $183,622,105,630.

Source: BDO ISAE 3000R assurance report and Tether Q2 attestation announcement, 2026

Tether’s Audit and Attestation Record

• KPMG U.S. completed a full independent audit of Tether International’s financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2025.
• The opinion issued was unqualified, meaning the statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the company in accordance with US generally accepted accounting principles.
• The audited statements reported reserves exceeding liabilities by $6.814 billion for that year.
• The quarterly engagements are performed by BDO as reasonable assurance engagements under ISAE 3000R, not as financial statement audits.
• The Q2 2026 Financial Figures and Reserves Report was authorised and approved on 31 July 2026.
• The Big Four audit process continued through Q2 2026 alongside the quarterly attestation cycle.

Source: Tether audit and attestation announcements, 2025 to 2026

“Tether’s audited financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2025 report reserves exceeding the liabilities by $6.814 billion, confirming the quality of the public attestation reports.” The statement came from Simon McWilliams, Chief Financial Officer of Tether.

Tether’s Regulatory and Enforcement Record

• The CFTC ordered Tether to pay a civil monetary penalty of $41 million for making untrue or misleading statements and omissions of material fact in connection with USDT.
• The same order required Tether to cease and desist from further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations.
• Fines across the Tether and Bitfinex orders totalled $42.5 million.
• New York Attorney General Letitia James found that Bitfinex and Tether had overstated reserves and hidden approximately $850 million in losses.
• The settlement required both companies to end all trading activity with New Yorkers and to submit to mandatory reporting.
• One civil class action remains open in the New York courts over the drop in the price of bitcoin in 2017 and 2018, with no provision recognised in the reserves report.
• Enforcement patterns across the sector are tracked in SEC crypto enforcement data, and the European position is governed by MiCA’s stablecoin rules.

Why is Tether in trouble with regulators?

The core finding against Tether was misrepresentation rather than insolvency. The CFTC concluded that the company made untrue or misleading statements about USDT’s backing, and ordered a $41 million penalty. New York Attorney General Letitia James separately found roughly $850 million in concealed losses.

Why is Tether banned in New York?

Tether is not banned nationwide. That settlement specifically required Bitfinex and Tether to end all trading activity with New Yorkers and to submit to mandatory reporting on those efforts. That restriction is a term of a state settlement, not a federal prohibition.

USA₮ and the GENIUS Act Framework

• USA₮ launched on 27 January 2026 as a federally regulated, dollar-backed stablecoin built for the framework established under the GENIUS Act.
• Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A. is the issuer, described as America’s first federally regulated stablecoin issuer.
• Cantor Fitzgerald acts as the designated reserve custodian and preferred primary dealer.
• Bo Hines, formerly executive director of the White House Crypto Council, was named chief executive of Tether USA₮.
• USD₮ continues to operate globally while progressing towards GENIUS Act compliance as a separate token.
• Access to both tokens runs through the same venues covered in exchange listings data, including OKX.

Source: Tether USA₮ launch announcement, January 2026

Is Tether Legal in the United States?

USD₮ is not prohibited in the United States, but it is not a federally regulated US token either. Tether’s answer to the GENIUS Act was to launch a separate product, USA₮, on 27 January 2026 through Anchorage Digital Bank, while USD₮ continues to operate globally and works towards compliance with the same framework.

The one live restriction is at the state level, and it dates from 2021. The commission published its order against Tether and Bitfinex that same year. Under that settlement, Bitfinex and Tether are required to end all trading activity with New Yorkers. That state-level term originates in the 2021 order and stands apart from any federal development.

Who Is the CEO of Tether?

Paolo Ardoino is chief executive of Tether and is the executive named in the company’s quarterly attestation announcements, including the Q2 2026 release. Simon McWilliams holds the chief financial officer role and led the commentary on the KPMG audit. Bo Hines runs the separate US entity, Tether USA₮, as its chief executive.

Conclusion

Tether closed the first half of 2026 with $187,751,426,411 in reserve assets against $183,622,105,630 of tokens issued, a position dominated by short-dated government paper and now supported by the first full financial statement audit in the company’s history. The two figures that moved most were not supply, which stayed close to flat, but the excess reserve buffer, which halved to approximately $4,109,529,196, and gold, which rose to $18,838,357,171, while bitcoin fell to $5,801,630,681.

Two things are worth watching from here. The buffer and the profit line moved in opposite directions during Q2 2026, so a second consecutive quarterly contraction would say something the single data point does not. And with USA₮ now live under a federal framework while USD₮ pursues compliance separately, Tether is running two regulatory tracks at once, which makes the next attestation the first to be read against both.