Tether (USDT) is the world’s largest stablecoin by circulating supply and trading volume. Issued by Tether Limited, an entity headquartered in the British Virgin Islands and led from Hong Kong, USDT runs on every major chain (Ethereum, Tron, Solana, BSC, Polygon, Avalanche, and others) and dominates centralized-exchange quote volume globally.
Reserves and disclosure
Tether publishes quarterly attestation reports covering reserve composition — US Treasury bills make up the majority, with smaller allocations to overnight repos, cash equivalents, and a tail of corporate bonds, secured loans, precious metals, and Bitcoin. Tether is not audited by a Big Four firm; the attestations are produced by smaller firms (currently BDO). This structural disclosure gap is the single biggest source of the persistent skepticism in USDT’s social discussion.
Peg history
USDT has briefly depegged on several occasions — most notably during the 2018 Tether/Bitfinex commercial- paper controversy, during the May 2022 UST collapse (where it traded as low as $0.95 briefly), and during the March 2023 banking-stress episode. In each case it returned to peg within days.
Regulatory posture
Tether has been a regular subject of US enforcement attention (NYAG settlement in 2021, CFTC fine in 2021) but is not a US-registered or US-regulated issuer. Its primary regulatory anchors are outside the US.
How to use the confidence chart
A USDT confidence score above 75 is the steady-state norm. Dips below 65 usually correspond to one of three things: a banking-system stress event, an enforcement headline, or a flow imbalance pushing the peg off briefly. Research only — not a solvency rating.