Tether Holdings Revealed – Commercial Paper Holdings Slashed

The stablecoin issuer Tether has revealed new details about its holdings of reserve assets, and now says a majority of its holdings are in the form of US treasuries.

In a tweet posted on Monday, Tether’s chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino said that 58.1% of the assets backing up the popular USDT stablecoin are now US Treasuries, also known as t-bills.

#tether portfolio update. Tether as of 30 September 2022 holds ~58.1% of its assets in US t-bills. Up from 43.5% on June 30 2022.
CP exposure is < 50M now.@Tether_to

— Paolo Ardoino 🤖🍐 (@paoloardoino) October 3, 2022

Ardoino added in a follow-up tweet that the Transparency page on Tether’s website should be updated with all the latest details about the stablecoin’s reserves within 45 days, but said they are working to “reduce timelines.”

Deadline is usually 45 days.
But with the new auditor we're improving processes to reduce timelines.

— Paolo Ardoino 🤖🍐 (@paoloardoino) October 3, 2022

Tether has in the past been criticized for having exposure to commercial debt, which is considered much riskier than government bonds, and in particular, US treasury bills.

In June this year, Tether hit back against rumors that it allegedly held large amounts of low-grade Chinese commercial paper in its reserves. In a statement at the time, the company called these rumors “completely false” and said they were likely spread “to induce further panic in order to generate additional profits from an already stressed market.”

According to an accountant report dated March 31, around 47% of USDT’s reserves were US Treasuries, while commercial papers made up around 25% at that time.