Tether CTO Says US Treasury Notes Account for More Than 58% of USDT's Reserves

On Monday, the chief technology officer of Tether Holdings Limited, Paolo Ardoino, explained that U.S. Treasury bills represent more than 58% of the company’s reserves. The announcement follows Tether hiring the accounting firm BDO Italia and the stablecoin issuer’s quarterly attestation, which had shown a decrease in commercial paper holdings.

Tether’s Commercial Paper Holdings Shrank to Less Than $50 Million

According to Tether’s CTO, U.S. Treasuries account for a large fraction of the company’s USDT reserves. Tether’s CTO Paolo Ardoino tweeted about Tether’s portfolio update on Monday.

Ardoino was also asked when he expected Tether’s next transparency update to be published and the Tether CTO replied: “Deadline is usually 45 days — But with the new auditor we’re improving processes to reduce timelines.”

In the portfolio update, Ardoino said:

Tether portfolio update. Tether as of 30 September 2022 holds ~58.1% of its assets in U.S. t-bills. Up from 43.5% on June 30, 2022. [Commercial paper] exposure is [less than] 50M now.

The news follows the company hiring the accounting firm BDO Italia and publishing the company’s quarterly attestation for Tether’s reserve holdings. Tether detailed at the time that it wants to reduce commercial paper holdings to zero by the year’s end.

The attestation published in August shows that Tether’s commercial paper holdings exposure was reduced, and the latest update shows Treasury reserves Tether holds today are up 14% from June 30, 2022. Commercial paper, however, has diminished down to less than $50 million.

When Ardoino was asked to “smooth brain talk” the tweet and was questioned if the update was good or bad, Tether’s CTO replied that it was “good.” Tether is the largest stablecoin by market capitalization and today, the USDT market cap is around $67.95 billion.

Tether’s entire valuation equates to 7.044% of the $966 billion crypto economy. Moreover, tether’s trade volume on October 3 is more than half of the crypto economy’s aggregate trade volume worldwide.

During the last 24 hours, the entire crypto economy recorded $48.43 billion in global trade volume, while USDT accounts for $28.63 billion of the trades. 64.53% of BTC’s share of trades are paired with tether (USDT) today, and USDT accounts for 34.27% of ethereum (ETH) swaps on October 3.

“As promised, Tether will once again demonstrate a commitment to transparency in our next quarterly attestation,” Tether explained in a note sent to Bitcoin.com News on Monday. “Portfolio updates to look out for include a reduction in commercial papers, now making up less than $50M of its reserves and the holding of 58.1% of its assets in U.S. Treasury bills.”

“In the upcoming attestation report, Tether will continue to validate the business, the strength of its reserves, and further solidify its position as the industry’s leading stablecoin,” the representative for Tether Holdings Limited added.