Tether earned roughly $1.5 billion in the second quarter, yet the cushion protecting Tether (USDT) holders shrank by half. Excess reserves closed June at $4.11 billion, down from a record $8.23 billion.

The stablecoin issuer published its Q2 2026 attestation on Friday, prepared by accounting firm BDO. The report confirms USDT stays overcollateralized. It does not explain where more than $5 billion of surplus went.

The Arithmetic the Report Skips

Tether reported total assets of $187.75 billion against liabilities of $183.64 billion on June 30. Three months earlier, assets stood at $191.77 billion.

The asset side therefore fell about $4 billion while token liabilities barely moved. In May, the record Q1 reserve buffer was the company’s headline number.

Add the $1.5 billion earned during the quarter and the gap implies roughly $5.6 billion of unrealized losses or outflows. Tether entered April holding about $20 billion in gold and $7 billion in Bitcoin.

The wording moved as well. The Q1 release reported “net profit.” Friday’s release reports “net operating profit.”

That second measure strips out mark-to-market swings on exactly those assets. Gold and Bitcoin both saw sharp moves during the quarter.

Three Disclosures That Disappeared

Tether’s Q1 report attached a dollar figure to every major asset class. It listed $141 billion in Treasury bills, roughly $20 billion in gold, and about $7 billion in Bitcoin.

Friday’s report attaches none of the three. Gold now appears only as a tonnage count of more than 146 tons.

Meanwhile, Tether’s US Treasury holdings are described as a majority share of reserves. Readers get no figure to compare against the $141 billion disclosed in May.

The company also dropped a boast. In Q1 it noted the buffer alone would rank as the third-largest stablecoin in circulation.

CEO Paolo Ardoino set a different standard in March, when the company hired a Big Four firm.

“Trust is built when institutions are willing to open themselves fully to scrutiny,” the attestation read, citing Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether said.

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The Audit Clock Is Still Running

Tether signed its auditor on March 24. The Financial Times identified KPMG as its auditor three days later. Four months on, Friday’s release says only that the process continued.

That March announcement also stated the group retains earnings instead of paying out profits. If that still holds, distributions cannot explain the decline, which leaves asset values.

Ardoino conceded pressure without sizing it. He said the assets behind part of the reserves came under direct strain during the quarter.

USDT itself never wobbled. The token held its peg near $0.9986 and keeps a third-place market capitalization of $183.5 billion.

Demand held up too, even after Revolut announced a USDT delisting in Europe this month. Tether says it added more than 30 million users during the quarter.

A halved buffer on a $183 billion book is not a solvency event. It is a disclosure question.

At $4.11 billion, the cushion now sits below the $6.3 billion Tether carried at the end of 2025. KPMG will be the first outside party in a position to explain why.

Source: BeInCrypto