Tether International published its Q3 2026 attestation on Friday, prepared by BDO, showing $1.5B in net operating profit and an excess reserve buffer of $7.95B as of September 30. If you hold USDT, that buffer is the margin by which assets exceed liabilities owed to token holders.
What the BDO attestation shows
The report covers Tether's financial figures and the composition of the reserves backing USDT as of September 30, 2026. BDO is a top-five global independent accounting firm.
Company management asserts the following figures at the report date:
Item | Value at September 30, 2026 |
|---|---|
Total assets | $191,451,091,374 |
Total liabilities | $183,496,460,904 |
of which digital tokens issued | $183,469,787,261 |
Assets in excess of liabilities | $7,954,630,470 |
Where the profit comes from
Tether generated $4.5B in net operating profit across the first three quarters of 2026, including $1.5B in Q3, in line with the previous quarter. US Treasury bills and reverse repurchase agreements provided most of that income.
USDT issuance held broadly steady at $184B through the first three quarters despite market volatility.
Direct and indirect holdings of US Treasury bills total $132.4B. Tether says the majority of its reserve assets sit in liquid, short-duration instruments to support redemptions across market conditions.
Reserve buffer nearly doubled
The excess reserve buffer is the difference between the company's total assets and total liabilities.
- Excess reserves at end of Q2 2026: $4.1B
- Excess reserves at end of Q3 2026: $7.95B
- Quarter-on-quarter increase: $3.8B
What Ardoino said
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the company's responsibility is to make sure USDT "remains dependable when people need it most, including when markets and financial systems come under pressure."
"Generating $1.5 billion in net operating profit while maintaining nearly $8.0 billion in excess reserves gives us a strong foundation for that work," he added. Ardoino said Tether is being built "for the long term, with the liquidity to meet redemptions and the financial strength to support infrastructure people can rely on," and that the purpose of the reserve strategy is to ensure the company "can continue to serve people when conditions become more difficult."