In brief
- Tether reported $10 billion in profit for the first three quarters of 2025—surpassing Bank of America, and nearing Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley’s earnings.
- The company’s profits stem largely from returns on $135 billion in U.S. Treasuries backing its USDT reserves.
- Headquartered in El Salvador, Tether plans to launch a U.S.-compliant stablecoin, USAT, by year’s end.
Tether reported a massive profit of $10 billion for the first three quarters of 2025 Friday, putting the world’s top stablecoin issuer in the same league as Wall Street titans.
Tether’s performance so far this year rivals that of the most profitable banks in the world—and has even eclipsed that of some of America’s top financial institutions.
The USDT issuer’s reported net income is greater than that of Bank of America, for example, which notched an $8.9 billion profit in 2025’s first three fiscal quarters. It is also nearly double that of U.S. Bank, which reported $5.5 billion in profits for 2025 so far.
Tether’s performance is also in striking distance of Wall Street mainstays Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, which have so far this year reeled in net annual incomes of $12.4 billion and $12.56 billion, respectively.
Last year, Tether came within 10% of besting Goldman’s annual earnings with an annual profit of $13 billion, and the crypto company is currently on track to exceed that performance this year.
Of course, despite Tether’s massive and consistently growing income, it’s not the king of finance quite yet. JP Morgan, for instance, has brought home some $44 billion in net income this year so far, more than quadrupling the stablecoin issuer’s performance.
Still, it’s quite the return for Tether, which remains privately owned and headquartered in El Salvador. In Q3 alone, the company issued more than $17 billion worth of its flagship dollar-pegged token USDT, bringing the globally dominant stablecoin’s circulating supply to over $184 billion at writing.
“USDT has become the biggest financial inclusion success story in the history of humanity, with more than 500 million users across the emerging markets and developing countries,” Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino posted on X.
Tether’s profits mainly derive from returns on U.S. Treasuries the company keeps in reserve to back its circulating supply of USDT. The company says it now holds some $135 billion worth of such bills, putting it ahead of nations like Germany, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and now, South Korea, in terms of top global holders of U.S. Treasuries.
The world’s top holder of U.S. Treasuries, Japan, possesses $1.2 trillion worth as of July.
Though Tether has primarily focused on dominating emerging markets, the company has made a concerted effort to enter the U.S. following President Donald Trump’s re-election and the passage of a legal framework for issuing and trading stablecoins in the country.
The company plans to launch a U.S.-focused stablecoin, USAT, which will be tailored to American regulations, by the end of the year.
The company had previously steered clear of direct involvement in American markets or any attempts to go public; it has also yet to submit itself to an internal audit by a Big Four accounting firm.
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Source: https://decrypt.co/347009/tether-reports-10-billion-profit-2025-so-far-compares-big-banks
