A fiat-backed stablecoin is only as good as what backs it. The token is a claim on assets held by the issuer; the reserves are those assets. If the reserves are liquid, transparent, and sufficient, the claim is credible and the peg holds. If they are opaque, illiquid, or insufficient, the claim is fragile — and the 2022–2023 period provided several real-world examples of what that fragility looks like under stress.
This article explains what reserve compositions look like in practice, how the available reports differ from each other, and exactly where to find primary sources for the major issuers.
What reserves are made of
Not all reserves are equal. The quality of a reserve depends on how quickly it can be converted to cash for redemptions. The standard hierarchy, from most to least liquid:
Cash at regulated banks — immediately available, subject to bank credit risk and FDIC limits. No price risk; full dollar value on demand.
Short-term US Treasury bills — the sovereign debt of the US government, maturing in weeks to months. Effectively the risk-free asset; can be sold in the market within hours. The dominant holding for most regulated issuers.
Overnight repurchase agreements (repo) collateralised by Treasuries — a short-term lending structure where the lender holds Treasuries as collateral; effectively cash-equivalent with Treasury backing. Very liquid.
Money-market funds invested in the above — pooled vehicles that hold cash, Treasuries, and repo. Liquid, but adds fund-level operational risk.
Secured loans — loans backed by collateral held by the issuer. Less liquid than securities; value depends on borrower solvency and collateral quality. Present in Tether's reserves.
Gold — a physical commodity with its own price volatility relative to dollars. Tether holds a gold position worth approximately $8 billion as of Q1 2026.
Bitcoin — a volatile cryptocurrency. Tether holds a Bitcoin position of approximately $7 billion. The dollar value fluctuates with Bitcoin's price.
The further down this list, the greater the risk that reserves cannot be liquidated quickly at full value if a large redemption wave occurs.
Reserve compositions of major issuers (mid-2026)
USDC (Circle)
Circle holds USDC reserves primarily in the Circle Reserve Fund, a government money-market fund registered with the SEC that invests exclusively in short-dated US Treasury bills (weighted-average maturity under 60 days) and overnight Treasury repurchase agreements. Approximately 80% of reserves are in this fund; the remaining ~20% are held in cash at regulated US banks. The fund's daily portfolio holdings are filed with the SEC under Form N-MFP.
Monthly attestations: Deloitte & Touche LLP publishes an agreed-upon-procedures report each month confirming that circulating USDC is fully backed by reserve assets on the stated date. Available at circle.com/transparency.
USDT (Tether)
Tether's Q1 2026 attestation from BDO Italy reports total reserve assets of approximately $191.7 billion against $183.5 billion in outstanding USDT — an excess of approximately $8.2 billion. The reserve breakdown is approximately:
- US Treasury bills: ~80% of total assets
- Overnight repo collateralised by Treasuries: portion of remainder
- Cash and bank deposits: portion of remainder
- Gold: ~$8 billion
- Bitcoin: ~$7 billion
- Secured loans and other assets: remainder
Quarterly attestations: BDO Italy publishes an agreed-upon-procedures report each quarter. Current figures and breakdowns are available at tether.to/en/transparency. Tether also publishes a daily circulation update on the same page.
PYUSD (Paxos for PayPal)
PYUSD reserves are held by Paxos, a NYDFS-regulated trust company that received OCC federal oversight in December 2025. Reserves are held in cash and short-term US Treasuries. Monthly attestations are published by Withum.
RLUSD (Ripple)
RLUSD reserves are held in cash and short-term US Treasuries. Monthly attestations are available through Ripple's transparency disclosures. RLUSD holds a NYDFS trust charter and a Luxembourg EMI licence.
Attestation vs audit: the critical distinction
When a stablecoin issuer publishes a "reserve report," the word matters. Most reports are attestations, not audits. The distinction is not technical pedantry — it defines what was actually verified.
Attestation (agreed-upon procedures): An independent accountant confirms that, at a stated date and time, the specific assertion made — "reserve assets equalled or exceeded circulating supply in the following composition" — was accurate. The accountant verifies the assertion against bank statements, custodian records, and Treasury positions as of that moment. They do not examine the full financial statements, internal controls, or operations across a period. This is the report type published monthly by Circle and quarterly by Tether.
Full financial audit (GAAS/PCAOB): An independent auditor examines the company's financial statements over a full reporting period, tests internal controls, and provides an opinion on whether those statements present fairly the company's financial position. Circle publishes annual audited financial statements as a public company. Tether does not.
The practical implication: an attestation tells you the reserves matched the stated figures on one specific day. It does not tell you what the reserves looked like in between attestations, whether the composition has changed, or how the issuer's overall financial health looks. For most users, the monthly attestation is sufficient. For institutional risk managers, the gap between attestation and full audit matters.
Where to find proof of reserves — primary sources
Go to the issuer's own transparency page rather than third-party dashboards, which may lag or aggregate imprecisely.
| Issuer | Primary URL | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| USDC (Circle) | circle.com/transparency | Monthly attestations + daily SEC filings |
| USDT (Tether) | tether.to/en/transparency | Quarterly attestation + daily circulation |
| PYUSD (Paxos/PayPal) | paxos.com/pyusd (reserve reports section) | Monthly |
| RLUSD (Ripple) | ripple.com/solutions/stablecoin/transparency/ | Monthly |
For USDC's Reserve Fund specifically, you can retrieve daily portfolio holdings directly from the SEC via EDGAR by searching for the Circle Reserve Fund under Form N-MFP. This is the most granular, real-time view available of any stablecoin's reserve portfolio.
For USDT, the transparency page shows a live circulation figure updated frequently and a quarterly breakdown of the reserve composition. The BDO attestation PDFs are linked directly from the page.
What to look for when evaluating reserves
Five questions to ask of any reserve report:
- Does total reserve equal or exceed circulating supply? Any shortfall is a red flag; most regulated issuers maintain a buffer above 100%.
- What are the assets? Treasuries and cash are liquid. Secured loans, gold, and volatile crypto assets introduce risk that depends on the buffer size.
- Who attested, under what standard? Deloitte, BDO, Withum operating under AICPA agreed-upon-procedures standards are the recognised tier.
- How recent is the report? Quarterly leaves a 90-day gap. Monthly is standard for regulated issuers; daily SEC filings (USDC) are the strongest available.
- Is there a full annual audit? Circle publishes one as a public company. Tether does not yet.
The bottom line
Stablecoin reserves are the foundation of the peg. The reserve composition tells you what assets back the dollar claim; the attestation frequency and attestor quality tell you how recently and rigorously that claim was verified. For the major issuers, the primary sources are public and updated regularly.
Check them directly. For further context on how the reserves make the peg work, see How do stablecoins keep their peg?. For a side-by-side comparison of all four major stablecoins, see USDC vs USDT vs PYUSD vs RLUSD.