Skip to content

SYSTEM ONLINE

[ SEARCH ]ABOUT
CoinRadar DailyCRYPTO MARKET SURVEILLANCE
LIVE TAPE
BTC$67,240▲ 2.4%·
ETH$3,418▲ 1.1%·
SOL$182.40▼ 0.8%·
BNB$604.20▲ 0.3%·
XRP$0.624▼ 1.9%·
ADA$0.512▲ 0.6%·
AVAX$38.10▲ 3.2%·
DOGE$0.158▼ 0.4%·
BTC$67,240▲ 2.4%·
ETH$3,418▲ 1.1%·
SOL$182.40▼ 0.8%·
BNB$604.20▲ 0.3%·
XRP$0.624▼ 1.9%·
ADA$0.512▲ 0.6%·
AVAX$38.10▲ 3.2%·
DOGE$0.158▼ 0.4%·
7.5/10
Stablecoins

USDT

Solidranked 4 of 4 in stablecoins◆ Sources checked · 27 Sept 2026

The most liquid instrument in crypto by a wide margin and accepted everywhere. Disclosure has improved in stages: quarterly BDO attestations, then on 13 Aug 2026 a first full audit, with KPMG giving an unqualified opinion on Tether International’s 2025 statements. The reserve still holds gold, bitcoin and secured loans that are several times the equity buffer, and that buffer halved in Q2 2026.

Best for: Unmatched liquidity and the widest venue acceptance

Company file: Tether, owners, incidents →

How this score was reached

7.5 is the weighted average of the five pillar findings below. Dependable, with trade-offs a reader should know about first.

Custody & Security35%
7.0

Mostly short-dated Treasuries and reverse repo, plus about 146 t of gold, about 98,900 BTC and secured loans. First full audit (KPMG, FY2025, unqualified) published 13 Aug 2026; quarterly figures remain BDO attestations. Excess reserves fell from $8.23bn to $4.11bn in Q2 2026 as gold and bitcoin dropped.

Cost & Fee Transparency10%
7.4

Redemption with Tether needs a verified account, a $150 verification fee and at least $100,000, at the greater of $1,000 or 0.1%; smaller holders exit via the secondary market.

Regulation & Legal Standing20%
5.8

2021 settlements with the CFTC ($41M, reserves not fully backed for most of 2016–19) and the New York Attorney General ($18.5M). Headquartered in El Salvador under a digital asset licence since 2025; privately held and not an SEC registrant. US users are steered to USAT, issued by Anchorage Digital Bank.

Performance & Reliability30%
8.8

Fell to about $0.95 on 12 May 2022 while Tether paid out more than $10bn of redemptions in two weeks, and was back at par by July. The deepest liquidity of any stablecoin.

Access & Support5%
9.2

Accepted on more venues and chains than anything else in the market; about $184bn outstanding, half of it on Tron. Effectively the base currency of crypto trading.

Strengths

  • The deepest liquidity of any stablecoin, by a wide margin
  • Paid out more than $10bn of redemptions at $1 during the May 2022 Terra collapse
  • First full audit (KPMG, FY2025) with an unqualified opinion

Against it

  • Only one audited year so far; quarterly figures are still attestations
  • Prior settlements over misstating reserves
  • Gold, bitcoin and secured loans in the reserve are several times the equity buffer

Liquidity first, disclosure catching up

USDT leads this table on access and performance because it is accepted on more venues than anything else and paid out more than $10bn of redemptions at $1 during the May 2022 Terra collapse, when it briefly traded near $0.95. As a trading instrument nothing competes.

Regulation is still its weakest pillar: the 2021 settlements over misstated reserves and a private, El Salvador-based structure. Custody has improved. On 13 Aug 2026 KPMG gave an unqualified opinion on Tether International’s 2025 statements, the first full audit in its history, though quarterly figures remain BDO attestations. What to watch is the reserve mix: gold, bitcoin and secured loans are several times the equity buffer, which fell from $8.23bn to $4.11bn in Q2 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Is USDT safe to hold?+

It has held its peg through every major stress event, and its 2025 statements now carry a clean KPMG audit opinion. Its reserve still holds gold, bitcoin and secured loans that a Treasury-only issuer would not, and there are prior settlements over misstated reserves. For holding rather than trading, USDC scores higher overall.

Has Tether ever been audited?+

Yes, once so far. KPMG audited Tether International’s 2025 financial statements and issued an unqualified opinion on 13 Aug 2026. Quarterly reserve figures are still attestations by BDO, which confirm assets at a date rather than examining the whole balance sheet.

Why is USDT so widely used?+

Depth. It is the base trading pair across most venues, and liquidity is self-reinforcing — the deepest market attracts the most flow. About half of the roughly $184bn supply sits on Tron, the default rail for cheap dollar transfers in much of the world.

Assessed by

Olivia Bennett

By Olivia Bennett

Blockchain Security Researcher · September 27, 2026

◆ Disclosure

CoinRadar Daily is a non-commercial project. We have no commercial relationship with USDT, earn nothing from any link on this page, and carry no advertising or sponsorship anywhere on the site. Findings rest on public sources; we did not open an account or transact.

Rubric v2.0How we score →

The rest of the stablecoins table

  1. 01USDCThe strongest disclosure and reserve composition available8.5
  2. 02PYUSDA federally supervised issuer with a plain cash-and-Treasuries reserve7.8
  3. 03DAI / Sky USDSOn-chain collateral with transparent, verifiable backing7.6
  4. 04USDT — you are hereUnmatched liquidity and the widest venue acceptance7.5
Full stablecoinscomparison →

Related tables

How we score →

Independent, rubric-scored tables for the services behind this story.

Best Crypto Exchanges

Top rated: Kraken 8.4

Centralised venues that hold your funds while you trade.

6rated →