Tether Holds $114.96B in Short-Dated U.S. Treasuries

Tether reported $114.96 billion in directly held U.S. Treasury bills with a weighted average maturity below 90 days and $18.63 billion in overnight reverse repurchase agreements as of June 30, 2025. The company listed total reserve assets of $187.75 billion and liabilities of $183.64 billion for the same date, leaving $4.11 billion in excess of liabilities. KPMG US completed an audit of Tether’s 2025 financial statements and issued an unqualified opinion.

Reserves include $18.84 billion in precious metals, $5.80 billion in Bitcoin and $13.45 billion in secured loans. Tether reported roughly $1.5 billion in second-quarter net operating profit, driven by income from Treasury holdings and repo transactions. Reverse repurchase agreements are separate from directly held Treasury bills and represent short-term lending against collateral.

In October 2021, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ordered Tether to pay $41 million for misleading statements about whether its tokens were fully backed by fiat held in bank accounts for the 2016–2019 period. In October 2022, Tether removed commercial paper from its reported reserves and increased holdings of Treasury bills.

Tether adopted a voluntary freezing policy tied to U.S. sanctions designations in December 2023, a mechanism that can restrict tokens at specified addresses. Justice Department filings in September 2025 described a restraint of $52 million in alleged scam proceeds and acknowledged cooperation from Tether in recovering funds.

In January 2025 Tether launched USA₮, a dollar token issued by Anchorage Digital Bank with Cantor Fitzgerald listed as reserve custodian and preferred primary dealer. The company described USA₮ as distinct from offshore USDT and not government-guaranteed or covered by federal deposit insurance.

U.S. policy texts include the GENIUS Act and a Treasury proposed rule that set conditions for foreign stablecoin issuers seeking access to U.S. markets. Those conditions include registration, a comparable overseas regulatory regime and readiness to comply with lawful orders. The Treasury proposal lists an expected effective date of January 18, 2027, and a further restriction on offers and sales to U.S. persons scheduled for July 18, 2028.

Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran, in a November 2025 speech, distinguished transfers of existing dollar holdings from new dollar demand among foreign savers without prior access to U.S. accounts. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in a July 2025 statement on the GENIUS Act, linked stablecoins to wider access to the dollar economy and to increased demand for U.S. Treasuries.

Tether’s reserve allocation and liquidity arrangements make it a recurring buyer of short-term U.S. debt and a distributor of dollar-denominated tokens to users outside conventional banking. Proposed U.S. frameworks would permit foreign issuers into American markets only after meeting registration and compliance standards; implementation details and potential public support mechanisms remain under development.