(Bloomberg) —
The latest financial disclosure from Tether, which serves as a controversial foundation for much of the cryptocurrency market, didn’t shed any more light on where its reserves are held.
Tether Holdings Ltd. had assets totaling at least $69 billion as of Sept. 30, according to an assurance from Cayman Islands-based Moore Cayman. That includes $30.6 billion in commercial paper and certificates of deposit, $7.2 billion in cash, almost $1 billion in money market funds and $19 billion in Treasury bills.
The discloser showed that Tether shifted about $1 billion in “reverse repo notes” holdings to money-market funds. However, they don’t specify in which countries the money funds are based.
Tether had been at the center of speculation for years that the coin, used to facilitate trades in the crypto market, wasn’t backed one-to-one with dollars as claimed. In February, the companies agreed to provide quarterly reports to New York as part of a settlement over allegations that it hid the loss of funds and lied about reserves in prior years.
The disclosure in March that Tether held commercial paper triggered a guessing game in both the crypto and fixed income world as investors tried to figure out what securities were held beyond the amounts listed.
The latest assurance also listed $3.5 billion in secured loans to non-affiliated entities, $3.6 billion in corporate bonds, funds and precious metals, and $3.8 billion in other investments that include digital tokens.
(Updates with holding changes in the fourth paragraph.)
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