Tether Doubles Excess Reserves to $7.95 Billion in Q3 Attestation

BDO Attestation Shows $1.5 Billion Quarter

Tether doubled its excess reserves to $7.95 billion in the third quarter, up from $4.1 billion at the end of Q2, according to the company's newest attestation report. The document, prepared by accounting firm BDO and released on Friday, October 30, covers the reserves standing behind USDT, the issuer's stablecoin, with a balance-sheet date of September 30. It states the company earned $1.5 billion in net operating profit for the quarter, level with the previous three-month period, bringing the first nine months of 2026 to $4.5 billion. That makes two consecutive quarters at the $1.5 billion mark. Income still flows mainly from US Treasury bills and repurchase agreements; the Treasuries figure counts bills held outright as well as exposure built through repo channels. Excess reserves, the margin by which assets exceed liabilities, widened by roughly $3.8 billion in a single quarter and now sit just under $8 billion. Total assets reached $191.45 billion against total liabilities of about $183.5 billion, of which roughly $183.47 billion are issued tokens. Treasuries held directly and indirectly add up to $132.4 billion, by far the largest bucket on the books. BDO signed the opinion on the financial figures and on the composition of the reserves. It follows the ISAE 3000R assurance standard, which verifies the figures as of one date rather than auditing the full year, and all holdings are marked at Bloomberg's September 30 closing prices.

Inside the reserve portfolio, US Treasury bills make up roughly $122.84 billion. Overnight repurchase agreements, short-term sales of securities bought back at a set date, add about $9.52 billion, with term repurchase agreements contributing about $7.18 billion. Cash and equivalents combined total about $139.58 billion. Beyond the cash-like lines, the tables list precious metals of about $19.08 billion, secured loans of about $14.18 billion, Bitcoin of about $8.37 billion, other investments of about $6 billion, listed equities of about $4.18 billion and corporate bonds of roughly $64 million. Every line is priced at Bloomberg's September 30 closes, which valued Bitcoin at $83,621 per coin and gold at $4,157 an ounce; at that mark the Bitcoin stake works out to about 100,000 coins. The excess reserve is the first-loss cushion between token holders and any shortfall elsewhere in the portfolio, and doubling it in one quarter is the report's most striking line item. On the liability side, USDT issuance held near $184 billion across the first three quarters despite market swings, and the attestation puts the redemption value of issued tokens at about $183.79 billion. That leaves supply close to the end-of-Q2 level of about $184.6 billion, so the buffer has grown faster this year than the token it protects. Net equity climbed from $6.81 billion at the start of the year to $7.95 billion, driven by $1.66 billion in financial results and a net capital change of minus $519 million, with prior-year comparatives restated under accounting policies approved at the August 13 shareholders' meeting. The attestation landed a day after Tether froze more than 1.567 billion USDT connected to the hack of the crypto exchange Binance, the largest single amount locked by any of the parties that moved against the attacker's funds.

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Yield, Not Supply, Drives the Quarter

The widest gap between the company's account and its figures sits on growth. CEO Paolo Ardoino framed the result as proof the operation can keep USDT stable when markets and the financial system come under strain, saying that $1.5 billion in quarterly profit alongside nearly $8 billion in excess reserves builds a solid foundation for that job. The numbers show the income comes from yields on Treasuries and repo rather than from token expansion, since supply ended the quarter near where it began, an earnings stream that does not need a bull market to keep paying. Set against $183.5 billion in token liabilities, the $7.95 billion buffer works out to about 4.3 cents per issued dollar. The snapshot cuts both ways: the $8.37 billion Bitcoin line was priced at $83,621 on September 30, while the coin changes hands near $77,000 on Friday, so that holding would mark lower today.