What We’re Showing
A breakdown of reserve assets backing the world’s two largest stablecoins, Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC), using data from the Circle and Tether's latest attestation as of July 31, 2025.
Key Takeaways
- Tether , with a market cap of $171 billion, is primarily backed by U.S. Treasury T-bills (64.9%), followed by Treasury repurchase agreements (11.1%) and other assets like Bitcoin (5.5%) and precious metals (5.4%).
- Circle (USDC), with a market cap of $74 billion, has a more concentrated backing in T-bills (37.6%) and repo agreements (49.6%), with 12.8% in cash reserves.
- The inclusion of volatile assets like Bitcoin in Tether’s portfolio contrasts with Circle’s more conservative approach, underlining differences in risk tolerance and reserve strategy between the two issuers.
- Tether is issued by Tether Limited, affiliated with Bitfinex, while USDC was co-founded by Circle and Coinbase and is now managed by Circle.
