Tether posts $1.5bn quarterly profit as its reserve buffer halves
BDO's attestation shows $183.6bn of USDT backed by $187.8bn of assets at 30 June—an excess of $4.11bn, down from $8.23bn a quarter earlier.
What happened
Tether published its Q2 2026 attestation on 31 July, examined by BDO as of 30 June. Total liabilities were US$183,622,105,630 against total assets of US$187,751,426,411, leaving excess reserves of US$4,109,529,196. The company reports net operating profit of about $1.5bn for the quarter, gold holdings above 146 tonnes after adding 14 during the quarter, and a cut of about $2.38bn, some 15%, in secured lending exposure. USDT in circulation rose about $446m from the first quarter to roughly $184.6bn, which Tether puts at over 60% of the stablecoin market.
Why it matters
The buffer is the equity that absorbs losses ahead of USDT holders, and it halved in a quarter in which the company was profitable. CoinDesk attributes the fall to marks on the reserve portfolio: gold down roughly 15% to just over $4,000 an ounce and bitcoin from $68,200 to $58,600 over the period. A thinner buffer under the largest stablecoin matters for the pricing of run risk across the market, and for how Tether's non-US book sits alongside USAT, its separately issued US-regulated token, under the GENIUS Act regime's reserve standards.
What is not settled
Tether's own post does not explain the buffer's fall; the market-price explanation is CoinDesk's reading, not the issuer's. The post does not disclose bitcoin holdings, and the split of the decline between asset marks and any distributions is not published anywhere the desk could read.
Institutions in this story
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Tether
Issuer
Reported total liabilities of $183.62bn against assets of $187.75bn at 30 June 2026 in its BDO-examined attestation, leaving excess reserves of $4.11bn against $8.23bn a quarter earlier, alongside a net operating profit of about $1.5bn and gold holdings above 146 tonnes.
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Anchorage Digital
Custodian
Issues USAT, the separately constituted US-regulated token that sits under the GENIUS Act's reserve standards, which is the comparison a halving buffer on the offshore book invites.
On the record
Tether's Q2 attestation shows its reserve buffer halved to $4.11bn
Tether published its second-quarter 2026 attestation on 31 July, examined by BDO as of 30 June. Total liabilities were $183,622,105,630 against total assets of $187,751,426,411, leaving excess reserves of $4,109,529,196, against $8.23bn three months earlier. The company reported net operating profit of about $1.5bn for the quarter, gold holdings above 146 tonnes after adding 14 during the period, and a reduction of about $2.38bn in secured lending exposure.