Tether’s reserve cushion balloons to $7.95B, putting $BTC on the balance sheet

Tether reported $1.5 billion in third-quarter operating profit as its excess reserves nearly doubled to $7.95 billion, according to figures released alongside its latest attestation prepared by independent accounting firm BDO. The company held $191.5 billion in assets against $183.5 billion in liabilities at the end of September, compared with a reserve surplus of $4.1 billion reported in June.

The company’s assets included $132.4 billion in direct and indirect US Treasury bill holdings. That exposure is comparable to South Korea’s $134.2 billion in US government debt and exceeds the United Arab Emirates’ $116.1 billion, according to August data from the US Treasury Department. Tether generated $4.5 billion in net operating profit during the first nine months of 2026, with income largely driven by US Treasury bills and reverse repurchase agreements.

Tether also valued its Bitcoin reserves at $8.37 billion, up from approximately $5.8 billion at the end of June. USDT remains the world’s largest stablecoin, accounting for around 60% of the $297.3 billion stablecoin market, according to DefiLlama data.

On Friday, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said in a post on X that USDT’s user base had surpassed 700 million, with adoption concentrated in emerging markets. The stablecoin issuer has faced years of scrutiny over reserve transparency and in August announced the completion of its first full independent financial statement audit by KPMG US, although the audited statements were not made public.