Tether reported an $8.23 billion reserve buffer in its Q1 attestation

A point-in-time balance-sheet check

On May 1, 2026, Tether International published a BDO Advisory Services reasonable-assurance report covering its Financial Figures and Reserves Report as of March 31, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. UTC. The report recorded $191,767,741,495 in assets and $183,535,531,717 in liabilities, leaving assets $8,232,209,778 above liabilities.

Digital tokens issued accounted for $183,438,487,810 of the liabilities. The scale made the disclosure consequential beyond Tether itself: USDT was the largest stablecoin, and its reserve portfolio connected cryptocurrency settlement activity to Treasury bills, repurchase agreements, gold, bitcoin and secured lending.

Tether separately characterized its first-quarter financial result of $1.04 billion as net profit. In the attached report, equity rose from $6.338 billion on December 31, 2025, to $8.232 billion on March 31, 2026. That was an increase of approximately 29.9%, calculated from the two reported balances. The change comprised the $1.04 billion financial result and $854 million in net capital movements.

What backed the tokens

Cash, cash equivalents and other short-term deposits totaled $141,223,029,091, or approximately 73.6% of reported assets by Coinburn’s calculation. That category included $117.036 billion of Treasury bills with a weighted-average maturity below 90 days, $19.335 billion of overnight reverse-repurchase agreements, $4.746 billion of term reverse-repurchase agreements and $107 million in cash and bank deposits.

The remaining asset categories were less uniform. Tether reported $19.838 billion of physical gold, $15.830 billion of secured loans, $6.624 billion of bitcoin, $4.843 billion of other investments, $3.408 billion of public equities and approximately $3 million of corporate bonds.

Those figures were valuation snapshots, not quantities measured continuously through the quarter. Gold was valued using a March 31 Bloomberg closing price of $4,668.06 per ounce. Bitcoin was valued using a March 31 Bloomberg closing price of $68,193.95 per bitcoin. Consequently, changes in the dollar values of those categories could reflect both transactions and market prices; the report alone does not isolate each effect.

What BDO verified—and what it did not

BDO said it obtained confirmations directly from banks and depositaries, tested valuations on a significant sample, reconciled relevant accounting records with blockchain ledgers and examined samples of secured-loan collateral. It concluded that the Financial Figures and Reserves Report was fairly presented, in all material respects, under Tether management’s stated criteria.

That conclusion was narrower than an audit of complete financial statements. The underlying document explicitly said it did not contain the presentation, primary statements and disclosures required for full compliance with International Financial Reporting Standards. BDO provided assurance only for the March 31 point-in-time balances, not activity before or after that timestamp. It also did not assure the report’s accompanying notes or management’s going-concern assessment.

The valuation basis assumed normal trading conditions. BDO warned that extraordinary market conditions or illiquidity at important custodians or counterparties could delay realizable values. The report also identified an unresolved New York civil case for which management had recorded no provision because the outcome could not be reliably estimated.

Why the disclosure mattered

Stablecoins depend on confidence that redemption liabilities are matched by assets that can retain value and produce liquidity when demanded. The May 1 record supported Tether’s claim that assets exceeded liabilities at the reporting timestamp and provided unusually granular reserve categories.

It did not prove that every asset could be liquidated immediately at its carrying value, establish reserve sufficiency on every intervening date or replace a full audit of Tether’s financial statements. The strongest event-day conclusion was therefore precise but limited: BDO supplied reasonable assurance over a large positive reserve balance at one verified reporting time.