Tether Attestation Report Shows 58% Drop In Commercial Paper Holdings

Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin, USDT, has released its latest quarterly attestation report compiled by its new accounting firm, BDO Italia.

As of June 30, holdings of commercial paper fell 58% to $8.5B from the previous quarter. Meanwhile, reverse repurchase agreements rose 28x to $3B from $105M.

The world’s third-largest cryptocurrency only behind Bitcoin and Ether, USDT has a market cap of $67 billion, according to CoinGecko. That’s down 19% from a peak of $83B in May 2022.

USDT Market Capitalization

USDT is a stablecoin backed 1:1 by government-regulated fiat dollars, but its reserves have been called into question many times over the years, including by the office of the New York Attorney General (NYAG). In February 2021, Tether was ordered to provide quarterly reserve reports and pay an $18.5M settlement.

Stablecoins have caught the attention of regulators this year after the spectacular implosion of Terra’s UST in May, which wiped out $40B of investors’ capital practically overnight.

The report breaks down the assets held by the group as of June 30, 2022, and emphasizes that the group’s assets exceed its liabilities, despite the ongoing bear market.

USDT Reserves As Of June 30, 2022

“We are fully committed to maintaining our role as the leading stablecoin in the market,” Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Tether, said in a statement. “The utility of Tether continues to be supported by the transparency of its reserves and has been a leading source of stability allowing us to build a tool for the global economy.”

BDO is the fifth largest public accounting firm in the world in terms of revenue. The decision to work with BDO “represents its promise to deliver considerable transparency for those holding Tether tokens,” Tether said.