Tether attestation shows cash and cash equivalents of 86% as loans decline

Tether’s newest reserve attestation shows the highest-ever percentage of cash equivalents, with most reserves consisting of U.S. T-bills and repurchase agreements.

The reserves for stablecoin issuer Tether contained approximately 86% cash and cash equivalents as of September 30, according to a new attestation report from accounting firm BDO. This is the highest percentage of cash and cash equivalents that have ever made up Tether’s reserves.

Tether today releases its attestation for Q3 /2023.- cash & cash equivalent portion of reserves is all time high at 85.7%, yielding ~$1B

– US T-bill (direct and indirect) exposure at $72.6B
– reduced secured loans by $330M
– investments in energy, bitcoin mining and P2P tech… https://t.co/PXQ1H5gqUX pic.twitter.com/ibKJRPlBAg

— Paolo Ardoino (@paoloardoino) October 31, 2023

According to the report, $56.6 billion worth of reserves are in U.S. Treasury bills with a maturity date of less than 90 days. Meanwhile, another $8.8 billion was held in reverse repurchase agreements involving these bills. There was $8.2 billion in U.S. Money Market funds pegged to $1 per note and $292 million in cash and bank deposits. Another $65 million is held in the form of treasury bills from countries other than the U.S.. The total amount of cash and cash equivalents is approximately $74 billion, which is 85.73% of Tether’s total reserves of $86.4 billion.

The report also shows that Tether has reduced its reliance on secured loans as a means of raising revenue. Secured loans now make up only $5.1 billion worth of USDT reserves, which is approximately $336 million less than what the previous report showed. Tether was criticized in September for continuing to make secured loans after previously stating that it would wind these down.

In an accompanying blog post, Tether forecast a further reduction in loans by the close of day on October 31. An additional $1.1 billion in loans will be wound down by this date, at which point only $900 million in loans will remain as part of reserves.

BDO publishes attestations of Tether’s reserves every quarter, with a one-month lag between the end of the quarter and the publication of the report. Tether claims that it is working on a system to provide real-time audit reports in 2024.