Tether Q4 2025 Report: USDT Market Cap Nears 190 Billion, Multiple Metrics Reach New Highs

Tether’s Q4 report shows that the USDT market cap reached $187.3 billion, with user growth exceeding 30 million for the eighth consecutive quarter. On-chain active users, transfer counts, and transfer volumes all hit record highs. Holders of U.S. Treasury bonds amounting to $141.6 billion have moved up to the 18th largest holder globally. This article is sourced from a Tether publication, compiled, edited, and written by BlockBeats.
(Previous context: Tether reduced its financing target from $20 billion to $5 billion due to investor doubts about a $500 billion valuation)
(Additional background: Tether released MiningOS, an open-source Bitcoin mining system, free of backdoors and third-party dependencies)

Table of Contents

• Market Cap
• Reserves
• Total Users
• On-chain Holders
• On-chain Active Users
• Distribution of Holdings by User Type
• On-chain USD Transfer Volume
• On-chain Transfer Count
• Velocity
• Spot Market
• Conclusion

USDT hit multiple new highs in Q4 2025, specifically:

· Market cap reached $187.3 billion;

· Achieved over 30 million new users for the eighth straight quarter;

· On-chain wallet count holding USDT saw the largest quarterly increase;

· Monthly active on-chain users reached an all-time high;

· On-chain transfer volume and transfer value both set new records.

Meanwhile, the crypto liquidation chain reaction on October 10, 2025, caused the growth rate of the stablecoin ecosystem to slow down compared to previous periods. From October 10, 2025, to February 1, 2026, total crypto market cap declined by over one-third, while USDT’s market cap grew by 3.5%. In contrast, the second and third largest stablecoins’ market caps fell by 2.6% and 57%, respectively.

USDT’s continued growth depends not only on the crypto market but also on various applications outside the market. Data clearly shows that users tend to prefer USDT as a stable store of value and trading medium.

These conclusions are mainly based on Tether’s analysis of blockchain data (also known as on-chain data). The on-chain data of 75 stablecoins across 15 blockchains are sourced from Chainalysis and Artemis.

Market Cap

In Q4 2025, USDT’s market cap increased by $12.4 billion, reaching $187.3 billion. The month-over-month growth rate in October was 4.9%, but after the crypto liquidation event on October 10, the growth slowed.

Reserves

In Q4 2025, Tether’s total reserves increased by $11.7 billion to $192.9 billion, with net assets (assets exceeding liabilities) at $6.3 billion. The total reserves include 96,184 BTC (an increase of 9,850 BTC in the quarter) and 127.5 metric tons of gold (up 21.9 tons in Q4).

In Q4, Tether’s holdings of U.S. Treasuries increased by $6.5 billion to $141.6 billion. If viewed as a “country,” Tether’s U.S. Treasury holdings would rank 18th globally, surpassing Saudi Arabia and Germany.

Throughout 2025, Tether added a total of $28.2 billion in U.S. Treasuries. Over the past 12 months, compared to other countries’ holdings, Tether became the seventh-largest buyer of U.S. Treasuries, surpassing Taiwan and South Korea.

Total Users

In Q4 2025, the estimated total number of USDT users increased by 35.2 million to 534.5 million, marking the eighth consecutive quarter with over 30 million new users. This user count includes two parts: on-chain wallet users (wallets that have received USDT and held it for at least 24 hours) and estimated users on centralized platforms (such as crypto exchanges) that hold USDT.

On-chain Holders

In Q4 2025, the number of on-chain wallets holding USDT increased by 14.7 million, reaching 139.1 million, setting a new quarterly record. Wallets holding USDT account for 70.7% of all stablecoin wallets. Besides on-chain wallets, it is estimated that over 100 million users hold USDT on centralized exchanges and platforms.

The structure of USDT on-chain holders remains relatively stable, with the following distribution:

· “Full savings” holders (wallets that receive USDT and keep it entirely) account for 30.8%;

· “Savings” holders (wallets that receive USDT and retain less than 100% but more than 2/3 of their holdings) account for 6.7%;

· “Transfer” holders (wallets that receive USDT and retain less than 2/3) account for 62.6%.

Compared to other stablecoins, USDT’s “savings” and “full savings” holder proportions are higher (USDT at 37.5%, others around 30%). Among all stablecoin savings wallets, 75.1% hold USDT, indicating it remains the preferred stablecoin for wealth storage.

On-chain Active Users

In Q4 2025, the average monthly active on-chain USDT users (wallets that received USDT at least once within a 30-day rolling period) reached 24.8 million, a new high, indicating increasing user activity. This number accounts for 68.4% of all stablecoin monthly active users.

Distribution of Holdings by User Type

As of the end of Q4 2025, 36% of USDT holdings are concentrated on centralized exchanges (CEX), up 2.8 percentage points from Q3. This shift partly results from the crypto liquidation event on October 10, which reduced USDT holdings on decentralized exchanges (DEX) and DeFi platforms: in Q4, USDT holdings on DEX and DeFi decreased by $3 billion (a 2 percentage point drop), down to $7.1 billion, representing 3.8% of total USDT holdings.

The second-largest share is held by “savings” users, at 33%, with “full savings” at 17.4% and other “savings” at 15.6%. In Q4, savings users increased their USDT holdings by $2.9 billion, reaching a total of $62.1 billion. As previously mentioned, USDT not only attracts the most savings users but also holds the highest dollar value: accounting for 59.9% of all stablecoin savings value; excluding wallets with over $10 million (mostly cold wallets of exchanges), USDT’s share rises to 77.3%.

“Transfer” users account for 26.5% of holdings at the end of Q4. From Q3 to Q4, this share remained relatively stable, with their holdings increasing by $2.2 billion, reflecting ongoing liquidity in USDT’s trading applications.

Note that the total holdings reported here are slightly higher than USDT’s market cap because total holdings include USDT in Tether’s reserves not yet issued, whereas market cap only accounts for USDT in circulation.

On-chain USD Transfer Volume

In Q4 2025, USDT’s quarterly on-chain transfer USD volume increased by $248.6 billion to $4.4 trillion, setting a new record. Of this total, $2.8 trillion (63.6%) involved only USDT, while $1.6 trillion (36.4%) involved multi-asset transfers (common in DeFi exchanges).

In single-asset stablecoin transfers, USDT accounts for 65.9% of transfer value; in multi-asset transfers, USDT accounts for 34.6%. This indicates USDT remains the preferred stablecoin for value transfer, with other stablecoins mainly used for exchanges, often against USDT.

On-chain Transfer Count

In Q4 2025, USDT’s quarterly on-chain transfer count increased by 313.1 million to 2.2 billion, a new high. Of these:

· Transfers under $1,000 totaled 1.94 billion, accounting for 88.2%;

· Transfers between $1,000 and $100,000 totaled 256 million, 11.6%;

· Transfers over $100,000 totaled 4.6 million, 0.2%.

Velocity

As of the end of Q4 2025, USDT’s velocity (average daily transfer amount as a percentage of total holdings, based on 7-day moving average) was 18.2%. This is below the peak of 51.8% on November 5 (driven by DeFi activity surge) and similar to levels before Q2 2025 (when Bitcoin’s price was comparable).

In Q4, USDT’s average velocity was 28%, significantly lower than the 151% of the second-largest stablecoin. The relatively low velocity indicates stronger user stickiness and higher stability, and as discussed later, broader application scenarios.

USDT’s velocity varies naturally with application scenarios: holders for savings tend to have lower velocity (as they prefer holding). “Full savings” holders have zero velocity; in 2025, “savings” users had an average daily velocity of 4%.

Centralized exchanges also show lower on-chain velocity, with an average of 11% daily in 2025. This is because USDT held on exchanges is used both for savings and trading—however, as the next section notes, trading volume is recorded on centralized order books, not on-chain, so the USDT transferred out of exchanges on-chain is relatively small compared to total holdings.

High-velocity application scenarios include:

· “Transfer” wallets: 2025 daily velocity of 51%, used for payments, remittances, transferring funds between platforms, etc.;

· DEX and DeFi platforms: daily velocity of 111%, often exceeding 100% due to multiple daily transactions recorded on-chain.

USDT accounts for 67% of market cap in low-velocity scenarios and 33% in high-velocity scenarios. This distribution ensures stability through low-velocity holdings and liquidity through high-velocity activity.

Spot Market

In Q4 2025, USDT spot trading volume on centralized exchanges reached $3.2 trillion, with 96.5% quoted in USDT, and the rest in other assets quoted in USDT. Due to the October 10 liquidation event, trading volume declined 5.9% from Q3. However, since other assets’ volumes fell by 11.5%, USDT’s share of total spot trading volume increased by 1.5 percentage points to 61.5%.

In Q4, USDT spot trading count was 14.1 billion, accounting for 80% of all spot trades that quarter.

Conclusion

In Q4 2025, USDT set multiple historical records despite growth slowing after the October 10 liquidation event. Data shows that the crypto market is not the sole driver of USDT’s growth.

Compared to other stablecoins, user preference for USDT as a savings asset is significantly higher (75% of all stablecoin savings wallets hold USDT; 77% of wallets with less than $10 million in holdings hold USDT), providing a stable, low-velocity demand base.

In high-velocity trading scenarios, USDT also leads: in single-asset transfer value involving stablecoins, USDT accounts for 65.9%; in multi-asset transfer value, 34.6%. This indicates USDT remains the primary stablecoin for value transfer, with other stablecoins mainly used for exchanges, often against USDT. These high-velocity applications ensure ample liquidity and broad acceptance for USDT.