Tether reveals its reserve attestation report from its new auditing firm BDO Italia

Tether, the issuer of the largest stablecoin USDT, published its latest quarterly attestation report for the token’ reserves on August 19. The report by Tether’s new auditing firm BDO Italia confirmed a more than 57.5% decrease in Tether’s commercial paper holdings over the prior quarter. However, many still await Tether’s audit report from a “Big Four” accounting firm.

Reportedly, the USDT stablecoin is backed by the US dollar, meaning that holders are expected to be able to redeem their holdings to an equal amount of the greenback at any time.

With a market cap of $67.5 billion, USDT became the third-largest cryptocurrency behind Bitcoin and Ethereum only – that’s why Tether’s reserves have been under constant scrutiny.

The new independent report, completed by Tether’s new auditing firm BDO Italia, breaks down the assets held by the company as of June 30, 2022, and asserts that consolidated total assets amounted to at least $ 66,409,619,424 while its consolidated assets exceeded its consolidated liabilities, which totaled $66,218,725,778.

“We are fully committed to maintaining our role as the leading stablecoin in the market,” CTO of Tether Paolo Ardoino said in an official statement. “The utility of Tether continues to be supported by the transparency of its reserves and has been a leading source of stability allowing us to build a tool for the global economy.

Further, the report confirmed a more than 57.5% decrease in Tether’s commercial paper holdings over the prior quarter from $20 billion to $8.5 billion. According to Tether, this aligns with the company’s plans to cut its exposure to commercial paper down to $200 million by the end of August 2022 and to zero before the end of the year. Also, the company said that it increased its holdings of cash and bank deposits by 32% over the reported period.

There are rumors circulated earlier that a portion of Tether’s commercial paper portfolio was “85% backed by Chinese or Asian commercial papers and being traded at a 30% discount.” Tether denied those claims, saying that the rumors were fabricated to “induce further panic in order to generate additional profits from an already stressed market.”

On August 18, Tether announced that it had hired BDO Italia as its new accounting firm to publish monthly attestation reports for the USDT reserves and thus deliver “considerable transparency for those holding Tether tokens.”

On May 12, the stablecoin lost its peg to the US dollar, sinking as low as 95 cents, following the collapse of another big stablecoin, TerraUSD (UST), which shook crypto investors’ confidence in Tether. Next day, it regained its dollar peg after more than $3 billion worth of tokens left the system in a single day.