Tether, the largest stablecoin with a market cap of $96 billion, has released its Q4 attestation report. The report shows a decrease in secured loans to $4.8 billion and an increase in excess reserves to $5.4 billion. However, the report reveals that a significant portion of Tether's reserves are still volatile assets, including $2.8 billion of Bitcoin and $5.6 billion classified as "other investments." Critics dispute Tether's claim that its stablecoin is backed one-to-one mostly by U.S. dollar equivalents like Treasury bills, and questions remain about the company's secured loan program.

Tether has released its Q4 proof of reserves report. From a financial performance perspective, Q4 net profit reached a historical high of $2.85 billion, of which approximately $1 billion (mainly from US Treasury interest) came from operating net profit, and the rest mainly came from the appreciation of gold and Bitcoin reserves. Excess reserves reached a historical high, increasing by $2.2 billion to a total of $5.4 billion, with the remaining $640 million invested in various strategic projects (such as mining, AI infrastructure, P2P telecommunications, etc.). The group's net profit for 2023 is expected to be $6.2 billion, of which approximately $4 billion will come from net operating profit generated by US Treasury bonds, reverse repurchase agreements, and money market funds, with the rest coming from the performance of other asset categories.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated on X platform that Tether does not choose which blockchain to use. Tether supports different blockchains because they are the transfer layer for USDt and other tokens.Users decide which one is most suitable for them based on factors such as support, speed, and cost. Nevertheless, Tether maintains the same functions for issuance, redemption, destruction, and freeze/unfreeze (to meet compliance requirements) on the supported blockchains.

According to Lookonchain monitoring, TetherTreasury has minted 13 billion USDT on the Ethereum and Tron networks since October 20, 2023.

Whale Alert has monitored Tether Treasury's creation of 1 billion USDT on the Tron network. Paolo Ardoino, the CEO of Tether, stated that this 1 billion USDT is a supplement to the Tron network's inventory and is an authorized but unissued transaction, meaning that this increase will be used for future issuance requests and cross-chain exchanges.

Whale Alert monitoring shows that at around 21:26 Beijing time, 199,800,199 USDT (199,704,795 USD) was transferred from Tether Treasury to an unknown wallet.

According to Whale Alert monitoring, at around 13:57 Beijing time, 55,000,000 USDT (54,975,167 USD) was transferred from Kraken to Bitfinex.

According to Messari's latest "Q4 2023 TRON Status" report, the market value of TRX has grown to $9.4 billion, an 87% increase YoY. Q4 revenue increased 14% in USD terms, from $105 million to $119 million. In 2023, only Ethereum and Bitcoin had higher revenue than TRON.TRON's total staked amount increased 4% YoY to reach 46.1 billion TRX. The utilization rate of Stake 2.0 continued to grow, with 30% of staked supply choosing this option. USDT on TRON performed strongly in 2023, growing 11% in Q4. As of the end of Q4, USDT issued on TRON accounted for 50% of total issuance.It is reported that stUSDT on TRON became the second-largest real-world asset (RWA) protocol in Q4, with over $2.2 billion USDT deposited in the protocol.

Tether has recently purchased 8,888 Bitcoins, increasing its total holdings to approximately 66,465 Bitcoins, which are currently worth around $2.8 billion. Tether began purchasing Bitcoin in September 2022, with an initial purchase of 33,980 BTC. Since then, the company has continued to acquire Bitcoin every quarter. Its second largest purchase was in March 2023, when it bought 15,915 BTC. According to blockchain data, the most recent purchase was at the end of the fourth quarter of 2023, when it bought 8,888 BTC, making it Tether's third largest purchase to date.

Stablecoin issuer Tether has reached a strategic partnership with DeFi bridging service provider Rhino.Fi, aiming to enhance cross-chain transactions and improve the user experience of USDT in the DeFi field. This includes seamless USDT bridging on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, zkSync, Polygon, StarkNet, Manta, Scroll, and Avalanche, with plans to expand to networks such as Tron, Base, and Solana in the future.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Southeast Asia and Pacific Department released a report specifically discussing the use of cryptocurrencies in illegal activities and underground banks. Tether questioned the United Nations' research on January 15th, emphasizing that the agency's analysis "ignored the traceability of USDT" and ignored its reliable records of cooperation with global law enforcement agencies.Tether stated: "The United Nations should also discuss how centralized stablecoins can improve anti-financial crime work. The United Nations' assessment singled out USDT, emphasizing its involvement in illegal activities, while ignoring its role in helping emerging market economies develop, which are completely ignored by the global financial community because providing services to these communities is not profitable for them."

According to Whale Alert monitoring, at 18:48:48 Beijing time, 69,999,999 USDT ($69,962,549) was transferred from Binance to an unknown wallet.

A recent report by the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime has highlighted the increasing use of Tether, a major player in the cryptocurrency realm, by money launderers and fraudsters in Southeast Asia. The report warns of a supercharged criminal ecosystem and emphasizes the urgent need for cryptocurrency regulations. Tether's speed and irreversible transactions make it an attractive tool for criminals, posing challenges for law enforcement in tracking and recovering illicit funds. The report sheds light on the urgent need for robust cryptocurrency regulations to curb the proliferation of crypto-driven fraud.

According to official sources, on January 13th, the issuance of TRC20-USDT increased to 50.8 billion, breaking the 50 billion mark for the first time in history. Currently, the number of TRC20-USDT holding accounts has reached 36.4 million, with a total transfer amount of over 1.49 billion.

According to Whale Alert monitoring, Tether has issued an additional 1 billion USDT.

According to CoinGecko data, the total market value of USDT surpassed $95 billion, reaching $95.024 billion, a new historical high.

As monitored by Scopescan, a newly created wallet received 160.91 million USDT from Tether through two transactions 16 hours ago and deposited all of it into multiple CEX.

According to Whale Alert monitoring, Tether increased the issuance of 1 billion USDT on the Ethereum network.

According to Lookonchain monitoring, a certain whale has received 735 million USDT from TetherTreasury and deposited it into the exchange in the past three days. Since October 20th, the whale has injected 2.55 billion USDT into the cryptocurrency market.

According to Whale Alert monitoring data, Tether has issued 1 billion USDT on the Ethereum network.Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, stated that this issuance of 1 billion USDT is a replenishment of inventory on the Ethereum network. This is an authorized but unissued transaction, meaning that this issuance will be used for the next issuance request and cross-chain exchange inventory.