Overview
- Tether said on Friday that a BDO-prepared attestation showed $1.5 billion in net operating profit for Q3 2026 and total reserve assets of about $191.5 billion backing roughly $184 billion in USDT issuance.
- The company reported excess reserves of approximately $7.95 billion at September 30, up from about $4.11 billion at the end of June and close to the $8.23 billion peak seen in Q1 2026.
- The reserve breakdown is concentrated in short-duration U.S. Treasury bills and reverse repos totaling about $132.4 billion, with non-cash holdings of roughly $19.08 billion in physical gold and $8.37 billion in Bitcoin.
- Part of the buffer growth came from market gains rather than pure earnings, as Coindoo and others note that higher Bitcoin and other asset valuations added to the surplus beyond the quarter’s $1.5 billion operating profit.
- The attestation improves disclosure by aligning figures with newly approved 2025 audited statements, but it also highlights key watchpoints: how interest-rate changes will affect future reserve income and how quickly large Treasury positions could be converted to cash in stressed markets.