Tether generated $5.2 billion in revenue in 2025, the largest haul recorded by any crypto protocol that year, driven primarily by interest income on its extensive U.S. Treasury holdings and by USDT’s market share in the stablecoin sector.
Data from attestation reports and industry tallies show the result amplified Tether’s profitability: year-to-date net profit had surpassed $10 billion by the end of Q3 2025, and market projections at the time pointed to a near-$15 billion full-year net profit.
The headline figures sit alongside large balance-sheet numbers that explain where the revenue came from. USDT held a 60.1% share of the $311 billion stablecoin market in 2025, and the issuer’s disclosed backing included $135 billion in U.S. Treasury–backed reserves and $181.2 billion in total assets/reserves. Total issued tokens were reported at about $174.5 billion in Q1 2025. Together, those assets produced substantial interest income that underpinned the $5.2 billion revenue figure.
Industry comparisons underscore the concentration: four stablecoin issuers together generated nearly $8.3 billion in revenue, with Tether contributing the majority. By contrast, Tron — which benefits from heavy USDT activity on-chain — was reported at roughly $3.5 billion in revenue, well below Tether’s take.
What Tether’s advance means in the stablecoin market
Tether’s 2025 revenues highlight how interest-bearing reserves can convert market share into predictable cash flow, changing how liquidity providers, hedge desks and custody operations model stablecoin risk. For traders, the practical effects include deeper USDT liquidity and a larger pool of collateral circulating across spot, derivatives and lending venues; for managers, the concentration increases counterparty and issuer risk tied to one dominant stablecoin.
The revenue concentration also has derivatives and positioning implications. Large, stable revenue streams can underpin operational costs and market-making, which in turn affect funding, basis and implied volatility in USDT-quoted markets.
Finally, the narrative around Tether in 2025 was not only financial. Observers described the issuer’s position as strategic: its scale gave it outsize influence over payment rails and liquidity distribution, while the emergence of yield-bearing stablecoins and evolving regulation were flagged as potential structural challenges to that dominance.
Looking ahead, market participants will watch forthcoming attestations and full-year disclosures to confirm how close realized net profit came to earlier projections of about $15 billion, and they will monitor regulatory guidance and the rise of yield-bearing stablecoin products that could alter funding dynamics and issuer economics.
