Leading stablecoin issuer Tether has won approval from Deloitte for the first reserves report tied to its new US-regulated stablecoin, after years of difficulties in its relationships with major accounting firms.
Deloitte reviewed a report prepared by Anchorage Digital Bank, which issued the company’s new USAT token. In a letter published Monday, the accounting firm said Anchorage reported $17.6 million in reserve assets backing 17.5 million USAT tokens in circulation. The token’s market capitalization, since the report, has risen to nearly $20 million as its growth accelerates.
In fact, the total market capitalization of the stablecoin sector has been growing rapidly. It has now surpassed $315 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap, with Tether’s USDT accounting for $183 billion of that amount. Circle’s USDC is in second place, with $76 billion.
The new USAT token follows the passage of the Genius Act last summer. The law limits the types of assets that can back stablecoins and requires larger issuers to move under federal supervision. USAT is structured to comply with those rules.
However, third-party certifications like this differ from full audits. They provide a snapshot of reserves at a specific point in time rather than an in-depth review of the company’s finances.
Tether has been leveraging the revenue it generates from the assets backing its stablecoins to invest in a host of industries. These include a majority stake in Latin American agricultural company Adecoagro (AGRO), a privacy-focused health app, and a stake in video-sharing platform Rumble (RUM). More recently, it invested $200 million in digital marketplace Whop.
