Key Takeaways
- Paolo Ardoino says USDT adds over 30 million wallets a quarter, with its user base above 550 million.
- USDT’s market cap climbed to about $190 billion in 2026, briefly flipping ether as the no. 2 crypto.
- Tether posted $1.04 billion in Q1 2026 profit and holds 97,141 BTC in its bitcoin reserve.
Growth That Shows No Signs of Slowing Down
Ardoino’s latest growth figure is the newest in a series of adoption statistics the chief executive has shared throughout 2026. Earlier this year, he put USDT’s user base at roughly 550 million people, expanding by more than 30 million new wallets every quarter (a pace of well over 100 million new wallets a year, concentrated in developing countries).
Ardoino has repeatedly postured its token as dollar infrastructure for the developing world rather than a trading chip. He stated recently:
50-60% of USDT is cross-border trade and payments.
The aforementioned wallet growth has a balance-sheet echo as well, given USDT’s market capitalization pushed toward $190 billion this year after Tether minted 2 billion USDT batches on Ethereum. That resulted in the stablecoin briefly flipping ether to become the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value, reaching about $186.06 billion against ether’s $185.66 billion before changing positions.
The company’s finances have kept pace and an attestation by accounting firm BDO showed Tether generated about $1.04 billion in net profit for the quarter ending March 31, 2026, with excess reserves climbing to a record $8.23 billion.
The firm has also kept stacking bitcoin, moving 951 BTC into its dedicated reserve address in April to bring holdings to 97,141 BTC (making it one of the largest corporate bitcoin treasuries in existence).
A Half-Billion-User Footprint
Tether has been building consumer rails to match the raw wallet numbers. In April, the company launched its consumer wallet app, tether.wallet, a self-custodial application with human-readable addresses and no gas tokens, aimed at the token’s hundreds of millions of users.
Fortune also reported earlier in the year that the crypto giant now commands $187 billion in assets and is planning a significant U.S. expansion under Ardoino, including a dollar stablecoin tailored for the American market.
All of this growth, however, is not without its caveats, and wallet counts are not unique individuals, as one person can hold many addresses.
In any case, if Ardoino’s pace holds, USDT would add roughly 120 million wallets over the next 12 months, more than the population of Japan. The next markers to watch are Tether’s Q2 attestation, the progress of its U.S. expansion plans, and whether stablecoin legislation in Washington reshapes the market it currently dominates.
