Why Tether is acting more like a central bank than a stablecoin

Once a simple stablecoin issuer, Tether now mirrors central bank mechanics with reserves, profits and policy-like decisions.

Tether operates a Treasury- and repo-heavy balance sheet, holding $181.2 billion in reserves against $174.5 billion in liabilities, leaving $6.8 billion in excess.

High interest rates have turned those reserves into profit, generating more than $10 billion in interest income so far in 2025, which is uncommon for a typical crypto issuer.

It exercises policy-style levers by freezing sanctioned wallets, shifting supported blockchains and allocating up to 15% of profits to Bitcoin.

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