Tether, the issuer of the roughly $84 billion valued USDT stablecoin, released its audited third quarter attestation report on Tuesday, which showed $3.2 billion in excess reserves, down slightly from $3.3 billion in the second quarter.
The company saw its highest-ever percentage of cash and cash equivalents, the majority from U.S. Treasury bills or T-bills.
Reserves are seen as a protection against a stablecoin losing its one-to-one relationship or peg to the U.S. dollar.
Tether started converting some of its reserves to t-bills a year ago, and those increasing efforts helped the company withstand the collapses of three crypto-friendly banks earlier this year.
In the period ending on Sept. 30, cash and equivalents represented 85.7% of its total reserves, up from 85% last quarter, with T-bills accounting for $72.6 billion, up from $72.5 billion.
Tether had $2 billion in secured loans in its reserves. In December 2022, Tether announced plans to gradually eliminate lending during 2023. However, Tether had $5.5 billion in loans in the second quarter, up from $5.3 billion in the first quarter.
The company told The Wall Street Journal that the company had honored loan requests from long-term clients and the loans would be eliminated by 2024.
