--- title: Tether ticker: USDT category: Stablecoin status: ai-fact-checked checked: 2026-10-30 checked_by: Opus 5.5 High updated: 2026-10-30 --- # Tether **Tether** (USDT) is a stablecoin issued by Tether Limited and related companies, designed to hold a value of one US dollar. It began in 2014 as Realcoin, a token on the Omni Layer of [Bitcoin](bitcoin.md), and now runs on many blockchains, including [Ethereum](ethereum.md) and Tron.[^rebrand][^protocols] Tether shares owners and executives with the exchange Bitfinex.[^cftc-order] Its claim that each token was backed by a dollar in reserve led to settlements with the New York Attorney General in 2021 and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in the same year.[^nyag-2021][^cftc] Its reserves are now held mostly in US Treasuries, with smaller amounts in gold and bitcoin.[^fy-2025] | | | |---|---| | Type | Fiat-backed stablecoin | | Peg | 1 USDT = 1 US dollar | | Issuer | Tether International and affiliates (Tether group) | | Founders | Brock Pierce, Reeve Collins, Craig Sellars, William Quigley | | Launched | 2014 (as Realcoin, on Omni) | | Headquarters | El Salvador (since 2025) | | CEO | Paolo Ardoino (since 2023) | | Chains | Ethereum, Tron, Solana, TON, Avalanche and others | | Attestations | BDO Italia (since 2022) | | First full audit | KPMG, year ended 31 December 2025 | | US product | USAT, issued by Anchorage Digital Bank (2026) | | Live data | [Tether transparency](https://tether.to/en/transparency/), [CoinGecko](https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/tether) | ## History ### Realcoin On 9 July 2014 Brock Pierce announced Realcoin, a token to be backed one for one by US dollars held in reserve. It was built on Mastercoin, a protocol that adds a layer on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. The announcement also involved Reeve Collins, an advertising entrepreneur, and Craig Sellars of Mastercoin.[^realcoin] On 20 November 2014 the project was renamed Tether as it entered private beta. Collins was its chief executive and Sellars, a co-founder, was also chief technology officer of Mastercoin. Bitfinex, then based in Hong Kong, was among the first exchanges to sign on.[^rebrand] Pierce's founding team, which also included William Quigley, stepped away from the project early on.[^ardoino-profile] ### Bitfinex and shared management Tether and Bitfinex have overlapping owners and managers. The CFTC found that they "shared common ownership, leadership, management, employees and operational resources", with the same individuals serving as chief executive, chief financial officer, chief technology officer and general counsel of both.[^cftc-order] Jean-Louis van der Velde was chief executive of Tether until October 2023 and remained chief executive of Bitfinex.[^ardoino-ceo] Giancarlo Devasini, who was running Bitfinex in 2014, was by 2023 Tether's chief financial officer.[^ardoino-profile] Paolo Ardoino, whom Devasini hired after they met in 2014, became chief technology officer of both companies, and was promoted to chief executive of Tether on 13 October 2023 while remaining Bitfinex's chief technology officer.[^ardoino-ceo][^ardoino-profile] Stuart Hoegner was general counsel to both.[^hoegner] In April 2017 Bitfinex's parent iFinex and Tether sued Wells Fargo, which had stopped processing outgoing wire transfers from four Taiwanese banks used by Bitfinex. The suit was withdrawn on 11 April, about a week after it was filed.[^wells-fargo][^wells-fargo-drop] The CFTC later found that from May 2017 Tether held some reserve money in an account in the name of its general counsel, and from June 2017 in Bitfinex's own accounts.[^cftc-order] In November 2017 the Paradise Papers leak showed that Devasini and Philip Potter, both Bitfinex executives, were also beneficial owners of Tether. The companies said they had already disclosed this in an April 2017 court filing.[^icij] ### Auditor and banking problems Tether hired the accounting firm Friedman LLP in May 2017.[^friedman-sec] In September 2017 a preliminary report by Friedman stated that Tether held $442.9 million in cash, matching the tokens then in circulation. It was not an audit.[^friedman] The CFTC later found that the review covered a single date chosen in advance by Tether, and that Bitfinex moved $382 million into Tether's newly opened bank account that day.[^cftc-order] On 27 January 2018 Tether said its relationship with Friedman had "dissolved" and that an audit was "unattainable in a reasonable time frame".[^friedman][^friedman-sec] Bitfinex from about 2014, and Tether from October 2017, relied on a payment processor registered in Panama, which the New York Attorney General identified as Crypto Capital, to hold customer money, and from August 2018 some of Tether's reserves.[^nyag-2021][^cftc-order] In April 2018 media reported that authorities had seized funds held by the processor, and Bitfinex had growing difficulty withdrawing money it had placed there.[^cftc-order] In November 2018 Tether moved $625 million of reserve funds to Bitfinex, later formalised as a credit facility.[^cftc-order] ### New York and CFTC cases On 25 April 2019 the New York Attorney General announced a court order against iFinex, alleging that Bitfinex had lost about $850 million held with Crypto Capital and had used Tether's reserves to cover the shortfall without telling investors. Bitfinex said the filings were written in bad faith and contained false assertions.[^nyag-2019] In an affidavit days later, Hoegner said that cash and short-term securities backed about 74% of tethers in circulation.[^hoegner] On 23 February 2021 the companies settled. They agreed to pay $18.5 million, stop trading with New Yorkers, and for two years publish quarterly reports on the categories of assets backing USDT. They neither admitted nor denied the Attorney General's findings, which said Tether's claim of full dollar backing had been false and that for periods it held no reserves.[^nyag-2021][^nyag-settlement] On 15 October 2021 the CFTC fined Tether $41 million and Bitfinex $1.5 million. It found that between 2 September 2016 and 1 November 2018 Tether held enough fiat in its own bank accounts to back the tokens in circulation on only 27.6% of days. It also found that the reserves had never been audited. Tether settled without admitting or denying the findings.[^cftc][^cftc-order] Tether told the CFTC that it had never failed to honour a redemption request.[^cftc-order] ### Chains Tether first issued tokens on Omni. On 11 September 2017 it launched ERC-20 tokens on Ethereum, with contracts built by Ethfinex.[^erc20] On 4 March 2019 it announced a TRC-20 version on Tron; at that time almost all USDT was still on Omni.[^tron] Tether later issued USDT on more than a dozen chains, including Solana, Avalanche, TON, Aptos and NEAR.[^protocols] On 17 August 2023 Tether stopped issuing USDT on Omni, Kusama and the Bitcoin Cash SLP protocol, citing low use.[^omni-end] In July 2025 it said it would end redemptions on these chains and on EOS and Algorand from 1 September 2025, and freeze the remaining tokens.[^legacy] In September 2026 Ardoino said USDT was "coming home" to Bitcoin through Utexo, a Tether-backed project using the RGB protocol.[^bitcoin-return] On 22 October 2026 Utexo opened early access to a bridged version of USDT on a Bitcoin test network, with a public launch scheduled for 28 November 2026.[^utexo-mint] ### Relocation and the US market On 13 January 2025 Tether said it would move its group headquarters to El Salvador, after two Tether companies received licences from the country's digital asset regulator. Most of its entities had reportedly been incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.[^el-salvador] The US GENIUS Act, signed on 18 July 2025, set federal rules for stablecoins, requiring them to be backed by liquid assets such as dollars and short-term Treasuries, with monthly reserve disclosure.[^genius] On 12 September 2025 Tether announced USAT, a separate dollar stablecoin for the US market, to be issued by the federally chartered Anchorage Digital Bank, with reserves managed by Cantor Fitzgerald. Bo Hines, formerly executive director of the White House crypto council, was named chief executive of the US business.[^usat-announce] USAT launched on 27 January 2026.[^usat-launch] USDT itself is a foreign-issued stablecoin under the Act. As of July 2026, CoinDesk estimated from Tether's disclosures that up to a quarter of its reserves were in assets, such as gold, loans and bitcoin, that did not meet the Act's standards, and lawyers disagreed on whether Tether must comply by January 2027 or July 2028.[^genius-countdown] ## Reserves and attestations Tether did not publish a breakdown of its reserves until May 2021, under the New York settlement. As of 31 March 2021 about 76% of reserves were in cash, cash equivalents and commercial paper, with commercial paper making up 65% of that group. Secured loans were 12.55%.[^reserves-2021] After the 2022 market stress Tether reduced its commercial paper, and on 13 October 2022 said it held none, having replaced it with US Treasury bills.[^depeg-fortune][^cp-zero] On 17 May 2023 Tether said it would put up to 15% of realised profits into bitcoin. It also held gold in its reserves.[^btc-policy] By the end of 2025 its attestation listed $122 billion in direct Treasury holdings, $17.4 billion in gold and $8.4 billion in bitcoin, against $186.5 billion in liabilities.[^fy-2025] In the second quarter of 2026 the value of its bitcoin and gold fell, and its excess reserves halved from $8.2 billion to $4.1 billion even though it added 14 tonnes of gold.[^q2-2026] Reserve reports were prepared as attestations, which check balances at a single point in time, not as audits. Two Cayman Islands firms, Moore Cayman and MHA Cayman, produced them until 2022, when Tether moved to BDO Italia.[^bdo] In November 2025 S&P Global Ratings cut its assessment of USDT's ability to hold its peg from "constrained" to "weak", its lowest score, citing bitcoin exposure and limited disclosure. Tether rejected the assessment.[^sp-2025] On 24 March 2026 Tether said it had engaged a Big Four firm for its first full audit; the *Financial Times* reported that it was KPMG.[^audit-hire][^kpmg] On 13 August 2026 Tether said KPMG had issued an unqualified opinion on Tether International's financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2025, which a KPMG spokesperson confirmed. Tether had not said whether it would publish KPMG's findings.[^audit-done] ## Profits and investments Tether reported group net profit of $13 billion for 2024, about $7 billion of it from its Treasury and repo holdings, and more than $10 billion for 2025.[^profit-2024][^fy-2025] It invests profits and excess reserves through Tether Capital, which describes stakes in artificial intelligence, energy, commodities, digital media and sport.[^tether-capital] In September 2025 Bloomberg reported that Tether sought to raise up to $20 billion at a valuation of about $500 billion.[^fundraise] In February 2026 the *Financial Times* reported that advisers had cut the figure to about $5 billion after investor resistance.[^fundraise-cut] Tether, which owned more than 10% of Juventus, made an all-cash bid for the club's controlling stake in December 2025. Exor, the majority owner, rejected it.[^juventus][^juventus-reject] ## Incidents and controversies - **Market manipulation research.** In a paper published in the *Journal of Finance* in 2020, John Griffin and Amin Shams reported that Tether purchases during the 2017 boom tended to follow market falls, came from a single entity, and preceded large bitcoin price rises, which they found consistent with unbacked money inflating prices.[^griffin] Tether called the 2019 version of the paper "flawed" and said tokens were issued on demand, not to move prices.[^griffin-response] A 2018 study by Wang Chun Wei found that Tether issuance did not predict later bitcoin returns.[^wei] - **2022 run.** After the collapse of [Terra](terra.md)'s UST, USDT fell to about $0.95 on 12 May 2022 before recovering. Tether said it processed about $10 billion of redemptions from 11 to 23 May.[^depeg-fortune][^depeg-decrypt] - **Celsius lawsuit.** Celsius sued Tether over the liquidation of about 40,000 bitcoin it had pledged as loan collateral in June 2022.[^celsius] Tether settled for $299.5 million in October 2025.[^celsius-settle] - **Illicit use.** In January 2024 the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said USDT on Tron was popular with money launderers in East and Southeast Asia. Tether said the report ignored its law enforcement work.[^unodc] On 28 September 2026 Democrats on a Senate subcommittee, led by its top Democrat, Senator Richard Blumenthal, said USDT had become "a significant financial lifeline" within Iran's shadow banking network. Ardoino replied that Tether's actions had cut Iran-linked stablecoin volumes by 94%.[^iran-report][^iran-response] - **Political ties.** In October 2026 Blumenthal wrote to Cantor Fitzgerald, which manages Tether's US reserves, asking about its relationship with Tether. Cantor was formerly led by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and is now run by his son Brandon.[^blumenthal-cantor][^audit-hire] ## Freezing and law enforcement USDT contracts let Tether freeze addresses, blocking transfers from them.[^freeze-israel] In December 2023 it began freezing addresses on the US Treasury sanctions list voluntarily.[^freeze-2023] With Tron and TRM Labs it formed the T3 Financial Crime Unit, which said it had frozen $300 million in its first year. Ardoino said Tether worked with more than 280 law enforcement agencies.[^t3] By July 2026 Tether had frozen about $475 million in USDT linked to Iran's central bank.[^iran-freeze] ## Timeline | Date | Event | |---|---| | 2014-07-09 | Realcoin announced | | 2014-11-20 | Realcoin renamed Tether | | 2017-04 | Bitfinex and Tether sue Wells Fargo, then withdraw | | 2017-09-11 | USDT launches on Ethereum | | 2017-11 | Paradise Papers show shared ownership with Bitfinex | | 2018-01-27 | Relationship with Friedman LLP ends | | 2019-03-04 | Tron version announced | | 2019-04-25 | New York Attorney General announces court order | | 2020-08 | Griffin and Shams paper published | | 2021-02-23 | New York settlement, $18.5 million | | 2021-05-13 | First reserve breakdown published | | 2021-10-15 | CFTC fines Tether $41 million | | 2022-05-12 | USDT falls to about $0.95 after Terra collapse | | 2022-08-18 | BDO Italia replaces Cayman attestation firms | | 2022-10-13 | Commercial paper reduced to zero | | 2023-05-17 | Bitcoin purchase policy announced | | 2023-08-17 | Issuance on Omni, Kusama and Bitcoin Cash ends | | 2023-10-13 | Paolo Ardoino becomes CEO | | 2025-01-13 | Move to El Salvador announced | | 2025-07-18 | GENIUS Act signed | | 2025-09-12 | USAT announced | | 2025-10-14 | Celsius settlement | | 2025-11-26 | S&P lowers peg assessment to "weak" | | 2025-12-13 | Exor rejects Juventus bid | | 2026-01-27 | USAT launches | | 2026-03-24 | Big Four audit engagement announced | | 2026-08-13 | KPMG audit of 2025 accounts announced | | 2026-09-28 | Senate Democrats' report on Iran | | 2026-10-22 | Utexo opens early access to bridged USDT on Bitcoin's Signet test network | ## See also - [USDC](usdc.md), the main competing dollar stablecoin - [Terra](terra.md) - [Bitcoin](bitcoin.md) - [Ethereum](ethereum.md) ## References [^realcoin]: CoinDesk (2014). *Brock Pierce announces dollar-backed cryptocurrency 'Realcoin'*. [^rebrand]: CoinDesk (2014). *Realcoin rebrands as 'Tether' to avoid altcoin association*. [^protocols]: Tether. *Supported protocols*. [^nyag-settlement]: New York State Attorney General (2021). *Settlement agreement: In the matter of investigation of iFinex Inc. et al.* [^cftc-order]: Commodity Futures Trading Commission (2021). *Order instituting proceedings: In the matter of Tether Holdings Limited et al.* [^cftc]: Commodity Futures Trading Commission (2021). *CFTC orders Tether and Bitfinex to pay fines totaling $42.5 million*. [^nyag-2021]: New York State Attorney General (2021). *Attorney General James ends virtual currency trading platform Bitfinex's illegal activities in New York*. [^fy-2025]: CoinDesk (2026). *Tether's gold holdings top $17 billion as net profits surpassed $10 billion for 2025*. [^ardoino-ceo]: CoinDesk (2023). *Tether promotes Paolo Ardoino to CEO*. [^ardoino-profile]: CoinDesk (2023). *Paolo Ardoino: the hardest working man in crypto*. [^hoegner]: CoinDesk (2019). *Tether lawyer admits stablecoin now 74% backed by cash and equivalents*. [^wells-fargo]: CoinDesk (2017). *Bitfinex sues Wells Fargo over bank transfer freeze*. [^wells-fargo-drop]: CoinDesk (2017). *Bitfinex withdraws lawsuit against Wells Fargo*. [^icij]: International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (2019). *Paradise Papers connection sparks massive bitcoin lawsuit*. [^friedman]: CoinDesk (2018). *Tether confirms its relationship with auditor has 'dissolved'*. [^friedman-sec]: CoinDesk (2022). *Tether's former auditor fined $1M by SEC for sloppy accounting*. [^nyag-2019]: CoinDesk (2019). *Bitfinex covered $850 million loss using Tether funds, NY prosecutors allege*. [^erc20]: Tether, press release via PaymentsJournal (2017). *Tether and Ethfinex enable tokenized USD on Ethereum network*. [^tron]: The Block (2019). *Tether to launch on the TRON blockchain*. [^omni-end]: The Block (2023). *Tether discontinues USDT support on Bitcoin, Kusama and Bitcoin Cash*. [^legacy]: The Block (2025). *Tether to sunset USDT on five legacy blockchains, including Algorand and Omni*. [^bitcoin-return]: CoinDesk (2026). *Tether's USDT is 'coming home' to Bitcoin after more than a decade*. [^utexo-mint]: Utexo (2026). *Utexo opens early access to USD₮ on Bitcoin through Utexo Mint*. [^el-salvador]: CoinDesk (2025). *Tether group to establish headquarters in El Salvador in emerging markets push*. [^genius]: The White House (2025). *Fact sheet: President Donald J. Trump signs GENIUS Act into law*. [^usat-announce]: CoinDesk (2025). *Tether unveils USAT stablecoin for U.S. market, names Bo Hines to lead new division*. [^usat-launch]: CoinDesk (2026). *Tether takes the fight to Circle with a new 'made in America' stablecoin*. [^genius-countdown]: CoinDesk (2026). *Tether's USDT hits 2-year countdown threatening its position on U.S. crypto platforms*. [^reserves-2021]: The Block (2021). *Tether reveals a breakdown of its reserves for first time since 2014 launch*. [^cp-zero]: CoinDesk (2022). *Stablecoin issuer Tether cuts commercial paper holdings to zero*. [^btc-policy]: CoinDesk (2023). *Tether says it will buy bitcoin for stablecoin reserves using realized profits*. [^q2-2026]: The Block (2026). *Tether's excess reserves fall by more than $4 billion amid weaker Q2 financial results*. [^bdo]: The Block (2022). *Tether partners with top 5 accounting firm BDO for reserve attestations*. [^sp-2025]: CoinDesk (2025). *S&P downgrades Tether's USDT, citing falling bitcoin prices as risk*. [^audit-hire]: Fortune (2026). *Tether announces it has brought on a Big Four firm*. [^kpmg]: The Block (2026). *Tether taps Big Four firm KPMG for first financial audit: FT*. [^audit-done]: CoinDesk (2026). *Tether says it completed long-promised 'Big Four' audit of finances behind $180 billion USDT stablecoin*. [^profit-2024]: CoinDesk (2025). *Tether reports $13B profit for 2024, with rising bitcoin, gold prices contributing*. [^tether-capital]: Tether (2026). *Tether invests in AIsa to expand its push into AI-powered payments and programmable money*. [^fundraise]: CoinDesk (2025). *Tether looking to raise up to $20B, bringing its valuation to $500B: Bloomberg*. [^fundraise-cut]: CoinDesk (2026). *Tether scales back $20 billion funding ambitions after investor resistance: FT*. [^juventus]: CoinDesk (2025). *Crypto firm Tether says it wants to take over Italian football club Juventus*. [^juventus-reject]: CoinDesk (2025). *Tether's bid to buy Italian soccer club Juventus rejected by majority shareholder Exor*. [^griffin]: Griffin, J. M., and Shams, A. (2020). *Is Bitcoin really untethered?* Journal of Finance 75(4), 1913–1964. [^griffin-response]: Decrypt (2019). *Tether: Bitcoin price manipulation study embarrassingly 'flawed'*. [^wei]: Wei, W. C. (2018). *The impact of Tether grants on Bitcoin*. Economics Letters 171, 19–22. [^depeg-fortune]: Fortune (2022). *Tether investors have pulled $10 billion since TerraUSD collapse*. [^depeg-decrypt]: Decrypt (2022). *Tether supply plummeted $8B amid depegging concerns after Terra collapse: Glassnode*. [^celsius]: CoinDesk (2025). *NY bankruptcy judge gives Celsius the green light to pursue $4.3B lawsuit against Tether*. [^celsius-settle]: CoinDesk (2025). *Celsius wind-down secures $300M from Tether, say GXD Labs, VanEck*. [^unodc]: CoinDesk (2024). *UN says Tether plays major role in illicit activity in East Asia; stablecoin issuer hits back*. [^iran-report]: CoinDesk (2026). *Tether is a 'lifeline' for Iranian regime, Senate Dems say in new report*. [^iran-response]: CoinDesk (2026). *Tether: Senator's investigation misses positive work that's led to lower Iran volumes*. [^freeze-israel]: CoinDesk (2023). *Tether freezes 32 crypto addresses linked to terrorism, warfare in Israel and Ukraine*. [^freeze-2023]: CoinDesk (2023). *Tether freezes 41 crypto wallets tied to sanctions*. [^t3]: CoinDesk (2025). *T3 Financial Crime Unit, backed by Tron, Tether, TRM Labs, has now frozen $300M in assets*. [^blumenthal-cantor]: CoinDesk (2026). *Top Democrat among Senate investigators probes ties between Cantor Fitzgerald, Tether*. [^iran-freeze]: CoinDesk (2026). *U.S. adds four Iran central bank crypto wallets to sanctions, Tether freezes $131 million of contents*.