After years of struggling with its relationship with major accounting firms, leading stablecoin issuer Tether has secured approval from Deloitte for its first reserve report related to a new US-regulated stablecoin.
Deloitte reviewed a report prepared by Anchorage Digital Bank, which issued the company’s new USAT token. The accounting firm said in a letter released Monday that Anchorage is reporting $17.6 million in reserve assets backing 17.5 million USAT tokens in circulation. Since this report, the token’s market cap has risen to nearly $20 million as growth accelerates.
In fact, the market capitalization of the stablecoin sector is increasing rapidly. That amount is now over $315 billion, of which Tether’s USDT accounts for $183 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Circle’s USDC ranks second with $76 billion.
The new USAT token comes in the wake of the passage of the Genius Act last summer. The law limits the types of assets that can back stablecoins and requires large issuers to come under federal supervision. USAT is configured to comply with these regulations.
However, such third-party attestation is different from a full audit. These provide a snapshot of reserves at a specific point in time rather than a detailed review of a company’s finances.
Tether has leveraged the proceeds from the assets backing its stablecoins to invest in a number of industries. These include a majority stake in Latin American agricultural company Adecoagro (AGRO), a stake in privacy-focused health app and video-sharing platform Rumble (RUM). It recently invested $200 million in digital marketplace Whop.
