Why Tether Looks More Like a Central Bank Than a Stablecoin Issuer

Key takeaways

• 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.

• The central bank comparison has limits. Tether has no public…