Tether Nets $5B Profits This Year, Says Its US Debt Holdings Surpassed Germany’s

Stablecoin issuer Tether reported Wednesday a “record” $5.2 billion of net profits in the first half of the year as the market cap of its flagship cryptocurrency (USDT) surged to new all-time highs.

The company said it generated $1.3 billion of net operating profits over the second quarter of the year. A part of those profits were reinvested in “strategic projects”

According to its latest quarterly attestation signed by accounting firm BDO Italy, the company’s stablecoin issuer arm Tether International Limited and Tether Limited disclosed $118.4 billion of assets in reserve against $113.1 billion in liabilities as of June 30. This translated to $5.3 billion of excess reserves backing Tether’s stablecoins.

Its U.S. debt holdings amounted to $97.6 billion, which would rank as the 18th among countries surpassing Germany, the United Arab Emirates and Australia, the company said.

Tether Investments, the entity established as a separate division from the stablecoin business to manage the company’s growing foray into bitcoin (BTC) mining, artificial intelligence and other investments, has a $6.2 billion net equity value, per the attestation.

Read More: Stablecoins Are Seeing Adoption as a Cross-Border Settlement Mechanism: Bernstein

Tether’s USDT is a key piece of infrastructure in the crypto market for trading and is increasingly in demand in developing countries as a vehicle to access the U.S. dollars. It’s the most popular stablecoin with $114 billion market value, up from $91 billion this year, per CoinGecko.

Tether has received considerable scrutiny over the years for the perceived opaqueness of its reserves. Howard Lutnick, chairman and CEO of the Wall Street investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald that manages a part of Tether’s assets, said that Tether actually has the money to back its stablecoins.