Tether announced today that it has completely eliminated commercial paper from its reserves. The stablecoin issuer said it has replaced these investments with U.S. Treasury Bills.
In a blog post on Oct. 13, Tether said that the move to reduce commercial paper exposure to zero “demonstrates Tether’s commitment to backing its tokens with the most secure reserves in the market.”
Tether claims that it removed $30 billion worth of commercial paper without any losses, while simultaneously increasing its direct exposure to U.S Treasuries by $10 billion in the last quarter.
Commercial paper is the short-term unsecured debt issued by companies looking to raise capital in a short amount of time. Since these investments depend on the company that issues that, they typically carry a higher degree of risk than government-issued T-Bills.
In May, Tether began to reduce its commercial paper holdings, saying that it would bring its exposure to the investment vehicle to zero by the end of the year.
“As of June 30th, more than 58% decrease in Tether’s commercial paper holdings over the prior quarter from $20B to $8.5B. CP portfolio will be $200m by end of August and 0 by end of October,” said Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino in an August tweet.
With a market cap of $68 billion, USDT is the largest stablecoin by market cap. The stablecoin has often been the center of controversy with allegations that it did not hold adequate reserves to back its stablecoins.
In September, a U.S. court ordered Tether to produce financial records to prove its backing of USDT as part of an ongoing lawsuit that alleges the stablecoin issuer conspired to inflate the price of Bitcoin.
