Tether reported a net operating profit of $1.5 billion in the third quarter, with a reserve buffer of nearly $8 billion.
Tether reports that net operating profit in the third quarter was $1.5 billion, and its excess reserves have been rebuilt to nearly $8 billion, which is almost twice the size of the buffer three months ago.
- As of the end of September, the excess reserves reached $7.95 billion, corresponding to total liabilities of $183.5 billion.
- Tether indicates that it directly and indirectly holds a total of $132.4 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds.
- The reserves include $19.08 billion in physical gold and $8.37 billion in Bitcoin.
- In the first nine months, operating profits reached $4.5 billion, with treasury bills and reverse repurchases contributing the majority of the revenue.
In its announcement on October 30th, Tether stated that as of September 30th, its total reserve assets amounted to 191.45 billion US dollars. BDO prepared an accompanying audit report that covers the financial data of the issuer as well as the assets that support its dollar-pegged tokens.
Although operating revenue remained the same as in the previous quarter, and the issuance volume of USDT stayed around $184 billion for the first nine months of 2026, the reserve buffer continued to grow.
Tether Rebuilds its buffer after a decline in the second quarter
As previously mentioned by crypto.news in the second-quarter performance report, as of the end of June, Tether held assets of $187.75 billion, with liabilities of $183.64 billion, resulting in a surplus reserve of $4.11 billion.
By the end of September, assets had increased by approximately $3.7 billion, while liabilities decreased slightly. Based on the disclosed data, the resulting buffer of $7.95 billion is about 94% higher than the level in June.
Calculated based on total liabilities, the latest buffer is about 4.34%, whereas it was around 2.24% three months ago. This means that at the end of the quarter, for every $100 in liabilities of Tether, there are approximately $104.34 in assets.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated in the announcement: "It is our responsibility to ensure that USD ₮ remains trustworthy when people need it most."
Ardoino indicates that providing liquidity for redemptions and financial resources to support infrastructure construction are priorities in the company's reserve strategy.
Attached financial report records show that the liabilities related to the issued digital tokens amount to $183.47 billion. The accounting policy classifies these tokens as obligations that can be redeemed at the contractual value and are payable upon request.
Treasury bills dominate reserves, with gold and Bitcoin being equally important components of the portfolio.
Underlying reserve reports show that Tether directly holds US Treasury bills amounting to 122.84 billion US dollars, with a weighted average maturity of less than 90 days.
The scale of overnight reverse repurchase agreements was 9.52 billion US dollars, and the scale of regular reverse repurchases was 7.18 billion US dollars. Adding a small amount of non-US Treasury bills and bank deposits, the total amount of cash, cash equivalents, and short-term deposits reached 139.58 billion US dollars.
According to the report, this category accounts for approximately 72.9% of the total reserves.
In addition to the aforementioned tools, Tether also holds $19.08 billion in precious metals, specifically physical gold bars that meet the standards of the London Gold and Silver Market Association. The Bitcoin position is valued at $836,212.3 per coin as of September 30, amounting to a value of $8.37 billion.
Gold and Bitcoin total $27.45 billion, accounting for about 14.3% of the reserve assets. Previous reports on the composition of Tether's reserve assets showed that as of the end of June, these two types of assets totaled $24.64 billion.
The September report measures these two positions at fair value, which means that the dollar amounts stated in the report include the market prices on the reporting date.
The total amount of secured loans is $14.18 billion, followed by $6 billion in other investments, $4.18 billion in listed stocks, and $63.9 million in corporate bonds. Tether stated that these loans are all overcollateralized, and there are additional margin notices and liquidation mechanisms in place to maintain the level of collateral coverage.
Operating profit and financial results are measured using different criteria.
Tether indicates that in the first nine months, the majority of its operating income came from U.S. Treasury bills and reverse repurchases.
Its separate equity adjustment statement shows that the financial results from January to September were $1.66 billion, with a net capital outflow of $519 million. As a result, the beginning equity of $6.81 billion increased to $7.95 billion by the end of September.
Therefore, the operating profit of $4.5 billion announced during the same period is not on the same basis as the financial results presented in this adjustment statement.
For comparison, Circle's data for the second quarter included $668 million in reserve income and $48 million in net profit. The issuer of USDC reported that total revenue and reserve income amounted to $701 million, while distribution, transaction, and other costs totaled $412 million.
Circle indicates that reserve income has increased by 5% year-on-year. The reason for this is that the average circulating volume of USDC has increased by 25%, but this increase has been partially offset by a 66-basis-point decline in its reserve return rate.
The September report for Tether also includes another accounting development. A footnote states that shareholders approved the audited financial statements for 2025 on August 13, 2026. Based on this, management adjusted the comparative data and beginning equity, which includes changes related to subsequent events and accounting policies.
