Businessjul 31, 2026

Tether’s Excess Reserves Halve to $4.11B Even as Q2 Profit Hits $1.5B

Tether posted $1.5B Q2 profit but its reserve cushion fell to $4.11B from $8.23B as gold and bitcoin values dropped.

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Tether’s Excess Reserves Halve to $4.11B Even as Q2 Profit Hits $1.5B

Tether reported $1.5 billion in net operating profit for the second quarter of 2026, but the buffer cushioning its dollar peg shrank by roughly half, falling to $4.11 billion from $8.23 billion three months earlier. The drop came even as the company kept growing its gold and bitcoin holdings, according to an attestation from accounting firm BDO released Friday.

The world’s largest stablecoin issuer held $187.75 billion in assets against $183.64 billion in liabilities as of June 30, leaving that $4.11 billion excess. For context, Tether posted $4.9 billion in net profit for the second quarter of 2025, meaning the year-over-year swing is steep even though the company remains solidly profitable.

Gold and bitcoin stacks grow, but valuations sink

Tether added 14 metric tons of physical gold during the quarter, lifting its stockpile to roughly 146.2 metric tons from 132.2 tons. Despite the bigger pile, the dollar value of those holdings fell to $18.84 billion from $19.84 billion, as gold prices dropped about 15% to just over $4,000 per ounce during the period.

The company also expanded its bitcoin position by about 1,796 coins, reaching 98,933 BTC. Here too, the value booked in the attestation slipped, to $5.80 billion from $6.62 billion, as the bitcoin price used in Tether’s reporting declined to $58,600 from $68,200 over the quarter.

In other words, Tether’s crypto and precious-metals reserves grew in unit terms but shrank in dollar terms — the primary reason the excess reserve buffer contracted so sharply, since the company’s operating profit itself came in solidly positive.

USDT supply and profit engine

USDT issuance rose by about $446 million during the quarter to reach $184.6 billion in circulation, keeping Tether’s stablecoin firmly the largest by market capitalization. The $1.5 billion in net operating profit was driven mainly by returns on Tether’s holdings of U.S. Treasuries and repurchase agreements, the mainstay of its reserve portfolio.

Tether has spent the past several quarters diversifying part of its reserves into gold and bitcoin alongside its core Treasury and repo holdings, a strategy that has boosted returns in rising markets but also introduces valuation swings tied directly to commodity and crypto prices, as this quarter’s numbers show.

Why it matters for USDT holders

For the millions of traders and platforms that rely on USDT as a dollar proxy, the headline figure that matters most is the excess reserve buffer — the cushion above and beyond what’s needed to fully back every USDT in circulation. A buffer that halves in a single quarter, even from a still-comfortable $4.11 billion, is worth watching, particularly given that a meaningful share of Tether’s reserves now sits in assets — gold and bitcoin — whose dollar value can move sharply within a single reporting period.