USDT Staking Statistics 2026: Yields, Platforms, and Market Share

Tether’s USDT carries a market cap of $184.034 billion, yet only about 3.2% of that supply sits in the 10 biggest USDT lending pools. Aave V3’s Ethereum USDT pool holds $2.879 billion at a 3.68% APY, and Maple’s Syrup USDT pool pays 5.55% on $660.96 million. Those two pools anchor the USDT staking statistics below.

USDT has no native staking, unlike the proof-of-stake assets in the cryptocurrency staking statistics. “USDT staking” means lending and savings yield paid by borrowers, protocols, and exchanges. Tether itself reported a net operating profit of approximately $1.50 billion for Q2 2026, led by U.S. Treasury and repo. The GENIUS Act bars payment stablecoin issuers from paying holders any form of interest or yield solely for holding the coin.

Key Takeaways

• USDT Dominance stands at 59.97% of a $306.902 billion stablecoin market, according to DefiLlama.
• Tron carries about 50.4% of USDT’s net circulation, yet JustLend V1’s Tron USDT pool holds only $234.93 million at 1.73%.
• Maple’s Syrup USDT pool pays 1.87 points more than Aave V3’s Ethereum USDT pool.
• Tether’s reserves exceeded its liabilities by approximately $4.11 billion at the end of Q2 2026, down from a record $8.23 billion in Q1.
• Aave V3’s Ethereum market pays 3.69% on USDC and 3.68% on USDT.
• Binance lists USDT on Simple Earn at 3.3% to 6.64% APR across flexible and locked products.

Editor’s Choice

• USDT market cap: $184.034 billion.
• Total stablecoin market cap: $306.902 billion.
• Aave V3 Ethereum USDT pool: $2.879 billion at 3.68%.
• Tether Q2 2026 net operating profit: approximately $1.50 billion.
• Fed funds target range, September 16, 2026: 3.75% to 4%.
• Tether Issuer total assets, June 30, 2026: $187.75 billion.

USDT Staking Statistics by Platform

• Aave V3’s Plasma USDT0 pool holds $766.26 million at 4.84%.
• Spark Savings holds $447.47 million of USDT at 3.50%, and SparkLend holds $331.39 million at 3.40%.
• Venus Core Pool on BSC pays 3.33% on $181.22 million of USDT.
• Compound V3’s Ethereum USDT market pays 3.24% on $162.44 million, while Fluid Lending pays 4.89% on $131.25 million.
• The 10 pools in the table hold a combined $5.96 billion.
• DefiLlama’s Verified APY simulates a real holder withdrawing from each pool on-chain every day and records what they received.

Source: DefiLlama Yields, October 2026

About This Data

Figures come from 16 sources: 7 Tether disclosures and attestations, 4 DefiLlama dashboards, 4 government and legal texts, and 1 Binance product page. They were published from May 2023 to October 2026. Only first-party issuer, government, and on-chain data qualified, and figures are updated when sources publish new data.

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What are the current USDT staking rates?

USDT supply rates on the 10 biggest DeFi pools run from 1.73% on JustLend V1 on Tron to 5.55% on Maple’s Syrup USDT. Aave V3’s Ethereum pool pays 3.68%, and Spark Savings pays 3.50%.

Which platform is the best for staking?

No platform suits every holder, because chain, rate, and smart-contract exposure differ by venue. Measured by deposits, Aave V3’s Ethereum pool is about 3.8x the size of the next pool in the table, while Maple’s Syrup USDT pays 5.55% on $660.96 million.

USDT Supply by Blockchain

• Tron carries about $92.73 billion of USDT net circulation.
• Ethereum carries about $86.51 billion of USDT net circulation.
• Tron and Ethereum together hold about 97.4% of Tether’s net circulation.
• Solana carries about $2.84 billion, after about $3.70 million of quarantined USD₮ is subtracted.
• Tether reports $0.00 of net circulation on BNB Smart Chain.
• The two largest Tron pools in DeFiLlama’s USDT rankings, JustLend V1 and stUSDT, hold about 0.31% of Tron’s USDT. Tron’s USDT works mainly as a payments rail, and the Tron network statistics cover the chain’s wider activity.

Recent Developments

• October 3, 2026: Tether’s transparency page showed USD₮ net circulation of about $184.0 billion.
• September 30, 2026: Treasury’s interim final rule on state certifications took effect, setting the process for state regimes that can oversee issuers with no more than $10 billion of outstanding payment stablecoins.
• September 28, 2026: Tether said it has supported nearly $550 million in Iran-linked USD₮ freezes, and that its cooperation has supported more than 2,900 investigations globally.
• September 16, 2026: The Federal Open Market Committee voted 12-0 to raise the target range for the federal funds rate by a quarter point, to 3.75% to 4%, per the September FOMC statement.
• July 31, 2026: Tether’s Q2 2026 attestation, prepared by BDO, put USD₮ issuance at approximately $184.6 billion, around $446 million higher than at the end of Q1.

USDT Stablecoin Market Share Statistics

• The total stablecoin market cap rose 0.59% over 7 days and 1.08% over 30 days.
• Tether said USD₮’s market share extended to over 60% of the total stablecoin market in Q2 2026.
• USD Coin (USDC) carries a $74.22 billion market cap, and USDT’s market cap is about 2.5x USDC’s.
• USDT and USDC together make up about 84.1% of the stablecoin market. The stablecoin market cap statistics follow each issuer’s share over time.
• Circle USYC sits at $2.404 billion, BlackRock USD (BUIDL) at $2.245 billion, and Ondo US Dollar Yield (USDY) at $2.203 billion.

How Much USDT Earns Yield

• Aave V3’s Ethereum USDT pool alone holds about 1.6% of USDT’s market cap.
• Ethereum pools account for about 77.4% of the deposits in the 10 biggest USDT pools.
• Aave’s USDT0 pools on Plasma and Mantle hold about 15.6% of those deposits.
• The stUSDT pool on Tron holds $55.15 million at 3.44%.
• Aave V4’s Core USDT market on Ethereum holds $23.51 million at 3.66%.

Source: DefiLlama Yields and Stablecoins, Tether Transparency, October 2026

Aave USDT Lending Statistics

• Aave V3’s total value locked stands at $18.222 billion, with $15.353 billion on Ethereum.
• Aave V3 collected $36.24 million in fees over 30 days and $4.64 million in revenue.
• Protocol revenue equals about 12.8% of 30-day fees. The balance of what borrowers pay largely reaches suppliers, which is where USDT lenders earn their APY.
• Aave V3 pays 5.02% on USDT on Avalanche, 3.18% on Polygon, 3.06% on Optimism, and 2.88% on BNB Smart Chain.
• USDT is one market inside a much larger protocol, tracked across chains in the wider Aave statistics.

By the numbers: Aave V3 holds $18.222 billion in total value locked and $12.635 billion in active loans, and it collected $36.24 million in fees over 30 days, according to DefiLlama. Borrowing demand, not Tether, sets the rate USDT suppliers earn.

USDT vs USDC Staking Yields

• Maple’s Syrup USDC pool holds $2.886 billion at 5.13%, against $660.96 million at 5.55% in Syrup USDT.
• Aave V3’s Ethereum USDC pool holds $2.411 billion at 3.69%.
• Compound V3 pays 3.86% on USDC, against 3.24% on USDT.
• Spark Savings pays 3.60% on $309.31 million of USDC, against 3.50% on $447.47 million of USDT.
• Maple’s USDC pool is about 4.4x the size of its USDT pool.
• Spreads this narrow leave issuer, chain, and liquidity as the real differences, the factors the USD Coin vs Tether statistics compare.

USDT Staking Yields vs the Federal Funds Rate

• The FOMC said its September decision supports the Federal Reserve’s dual mandate and that inflation remains elevated.
• Compound V3’s USDT rate sits 0.51 points below the bottom of the Fed’s new range.
• Maple’s Syrup USDT pays 1.55 points above the top of the range.
• Fluid Lending’s USDT pool pays 0.89 points above the top of the range.
• Tether’s Q2 2026 net operating profit was led by U.S. Treasury and repo.

Source: Federal Reserve, September 2026; DefiLlama Yields, October 2026

Why it matters: Aave V3’s Ethereum pool, the biggest USDT pool in the table, pays 0.07 points less than the floor of the Federal Reserve’s new target range. Aave Ethereum lenders take smart-contract and counterparty risk for a rate below the policy benchmark, while the issuer keeps the Treasury income on its reserves.

Exchange USDT Earn Rates

• Binance lists USDC on Simple Earn at 1.97% to 3.61% APR.
• The top of Binance’s USDT range sits 3.03 points above the top of its USDC range.
• Binance also advertises 3.61% APR on RWUSD, which can be used as futures margin.
• Binance says redemption delays can follow extreme market volatility, network delays or a large number of simultaneous redemption requests from other users.
• Exchange earn products also carry the exchange’s custody risk.

Source: Binance Simple Earn, October 2026

High-Yield USDT Pools and Their Risks

• Concrete’s Decentralized Finance USDT vault lists 33.98% on $29.94 million.
• Yuzu Money’s Protection Pool on Plasma lists 24.54% on $6.64 million.
• Flowdesk’s Confidential High Yield USDT vault on Morpho Blue lists 13.77% on $16.92 million.
• Kamino Lend’s USDT SOL/BTC market on Solana lists 12.60% on $10.61 million.
• Those four pools together hold about 2.2% as much USDT as Aave V3’s Ethereum pool.
• Tether defines quarantined tokens as Tether Tokens frozen at their last reported address.

What is the downside to staking your crypto?

For USDT, the main downsides are smart-contract failure, borrower default, withdrawal limits, and issuer freezes, and a higher APY usually brings more of them. Binance applies daily redemption limits to each Flexible Product, and those limits can change at any time. Tether excludes quarantined tokens from net circulation.

Tether Reserve Buffer Statistics

• Shareholder capital in the company managing the reserves stood at approximately $5.47 billion after Q2 2025.
• Excess reserves stood at $6.8 billion after Q3 2025.
• Tether’s excess reserves reached $6.3 billion in 2025.
• Excess reserves increased to a record $8.23 billion as of March 31, 2026.
• The buffer fell by about $4.12 billion between Q1 and Q2 2026, while Tether reduced its secured lending exposure by approximately $2.38 billion (15%).
• Reserve composition by asset class sits in the fuller Tether reserve statistics, which matter to anyone lending USDT against its peg.

Tether Profit and Treasury Statistics

• Tether’s net profit for Q2 2025 totaled approximately $4.9 billion.
• Tether delivered net profits exceeding $10 billion in 2025.
• Tether generated approximately $1.04 billion in net profit in Q1 2026.
• Direct U.S. Treasury holdings exceeded $122 billion by year-end 2025, and total direct and indirect Treasury exposure surpassed $141 billion.
• Tether’s total U.S. Treasury exposure reached approximately $135 billion in Q3 2025.

Source: Tether quarterly attestation releases, 2025 to 2026

Key finding: Tether’s Q2 2026 net operating profit reached approximately $1.50 billion, led by U.S. Treasury and repo, and its reserves exceeded liabilities by approximately $4.11 billion, according to the BDO-prepared attestation. None of that income reaches USDT holders directly, so every USDT yield in the tables above comes from a lender, protocol or exchange.

Rules on Paying Interest on Stablecoins

• The GENIUS Act bars a permitted or foreign payment stablecoin issuer from paying holders any form of interest or yield, whether in cash, tokens, or other consideration, solely for holding, using, or retaining the coin. The approval process behind that law is set out in the GENIUS Act stablecoin approval framework.
• The GENIUS Act takes effect on the earlier of 18 months after enactment or 120 days after regulators issue final implementing rules, and it was approved on July 18, 2025.
• Article 50 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 on markets in crypto-assets bars e-money token issuers and crypto-asset service providers from granting interest on e-money tokens.
• Article 50 also treats any remuneration tied to how long a holder keeps an e-money token as interest. The stablecoin rules under MiCA shape which coins EU platforms can list.
• State-qualified payment stablecoin issuers with not more than $10 billion outstanding may opt for state regulation, a path the interim final rule puts into practice, and comments on the rule are due by November 30, 2026.

Source: GENIUS Act; Regulation (EU) 2023/1114; Federal Register, September 30, 2026

Can you earn interest on USDT?

Yes, but not from Tether. Lending pools such as Aave V3’s Ethereum market pay 3.68% on USDT, and Maple’s Syrup USDT pays 5.55%, while the GENIUS Act bars stablecoin issuers from paying holders interest or yield solely for holding the coin. Any USDT yield is a payment from a third party.

What will a Tether be worth in 10 years?

Tether says all Tether tokens are pegged at 1-to-1 with a matching fiat currency and are backed 100% by Tether’s Reserves. No source forecasts USDT’s value a decade out. As of 30 June 2026, the Tether Issuer reported net equity of about $4.11 billion.

Conclusion

USDT’s market cap stands at $184.034 billion, yet only about 3.2% of it sits in the 10 biggest lending pools, where rates run from 1.73% on JustLend V1 to 5.55% on Maple’s Syrup USDT. USDT staking is a lending decision: The rate comes from borrowers and platforms, and so do the risks.

The GENIUS Act takes effect on the earlier of 18 months after enactment or 120 days after final regulations. Once those rules land, the split between issuers that cannot pay yield and the platforms that do will face its first real test.