By Elizabeth Howcroft
LONDON (Reuters) - The world's largest stablecoin, Tether, said on Monday its assets rose 5.7% to $86.5 billion in the second quarter of 2023, while it made more than $1 billion "operational profit", a 30% increase on the previous quarter.
Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency which aim to keep a constant value and are usually backed by traditional assets such as dollars. Tether says there is $83.8 billion of its coin in circulation, which makes it the third largest cryptocurrency overall, according to market tracker CoinGecko.
Tether's reserves report, signed off by accountants BDO Italia, says Tether's assets rose to $86.5 billion in the three months to June 30, 2023, up 5.7% from the previous quarter and a record high, according to previous reports on its website.
Tether is a key cog in global digital asset trading, with many crypto-to-crypto trades denominated in the stablecoin.
U.S. regulators have warned banks that stablecoin reserves could be subject to rapid outflows, for example if holders rushed to exchange such tokens back into traditional currency.
Tether's holdings of U.S. Treasury Bills hit $55.8 billion, up 5.2% from the end of March, while non-U.S. Treasury Bills rose to $62.9 million, up more than 30% from the previous quarter, the report said.
Tether also counts $115 million of corporate bonds, $3.3 billion of precious metals, $1.7 billion worth of bitcoin, $5.5 billion of secured loans and $2.4 billion of unspecified "other investments" in its holdings.
Separate to the auditor's report, Tether said in a statement on its website that its operational profits from April to June were over $1 billion, which it said was a 30% quarterly increase, without specifying how this was calculated.
As part of a 2021 settlement with the New York Attorney General's office, Tether agreed to provide quarterly reports on its reserves for two years. Tether said on its website that it completed this requirement earlier this year.