Tether Posts $1B Q1 Profit, Reserves Hit Record

Coinbase's CUSHY Stablecoin Yield Fund | Polymarket & Kalshi Cross $150B Volume

Marco Manoppo & Karon Pangestu
May 04, 2026

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Tether's Q1 attestation lands with $1.04B in profit and $141B in US Treasury exposure, putting the stablecoin issuer alongside sovereign nations as a structural source of dollar demand. Coinbase and Superstate are leaning into the same institutional pull with CUSHY, a tokenized stablecoin credit fund launching on FundOS in Q2.

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In Today's Email:

What Matters: Tether Posts $1B Q1 Profit, Reserves Hit Record 👀
Product of the Week: Coinbase Launches CUSHY Stablecoin Yield Fund 🪙
Charts: CoinShares’s $7.4B AUM, Polymarket & Kalshi Cross $150B Volume 📊

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Narratives: Stablecoin institutionalization

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WHAT MATTERS

Tether Posts $1B Q1 Profit, Reserves Hit Record

Source: Tether

State of play: Tether's Q1 attestation showed $1.04B in net profit and a record $8.23B excess reserve buffer, though the pace trails last year's $10B+ annual run rate.

US Treasury exposure stands at ~$141B, ranking Tether alongside Saudi Arabia and South Korea among the top 20 sovereign-scale holders.
Reserves also include roughly $20B in gold and $7B in bitcoin, framed as macro hedges rather than core liquidity.
Total assets reached $191.7B against $183.5B in liabilities, with $183.4B tied to issued USDT.
USDT supply held steady through Q1 at ~$183B, then added more than 5B tokens in April per CEO Paolo Ardoino.
Proprietary investments via Tether Investments sit outside reserves, funded entirely from retained profits.

Why it matters: Tether's Treasury book now rivals mid-sized sovereigns, making USDT a structural source of US dollar demand rather than just a crypto settlement layer.

Our take: Profit is slowing but the franchise is still printing money on float, and the gold and bitcoin allocations are a hedge against a world where Tether's own dollar exposure becomes a political liability.

For builders and investors: Watch reserve composition as much as supply growth, since any shift away from T-bills toward macro hedges signals how Tether is positioning for regulatory and FX risk.

PRODUCT OF THE WEEK

Coinbase Launches CUSHY Stablecoin Yield Fund

Coinbase and Superstate plan to launch CUSHY in Q2, a stablecoin credit fund offering institutions tokenized exposure to lending and private credit yield.

The fund will be the first third-party issuance on Superstate's FundOS platform, which previously launched USTB and USCC with over $1B combined AUM.
Tokenized shares will be issued on Solana, Ethereum, and soon Base, usable as collateral or transferable across compliant digital venues 24/7.
Northern Trust Hedge Fund Services will administer CUSHY via the Omnium platform, with Apollo named among supporting partners.
The strategy generates yield by lending stablecoins and deploying into unspecified private credit opportunities.
It follows Coinbase's USCBYF bitcoin yield fund, which tapped Apex Group last month for a tokenized share class on Base.

Other cool products:

Outcome Markets launches mainnet.
TradeXYZ launches pre-IPO perpetuals.
Circle Ventures purchased AAVE tokens.
Strata launched the Saturn Credit market.
Arbitrum’s Snapshot temperature check to release 30,765.67 ETH is live.
Royco Dawn has added 7 tranched yield-bearing stablecoins ahead of launch.

Take a peek at our referral reward at the bottom of this issue. Share this newsletter and receive our list of 500 crypto VC individuals 👇

CHARTS OF THE WEEK

Polymarket and Kalshi Cross $150B Lifetime Volume

State of play: Combined lifetime volume on Polymarket and Kalshi crossed $150B in April, even as monthly trading volume broke a seven-month record-setting streak with its first decline since September.

Polymarket's active traders fell to ~643K from 733K in March, ending another seven-month growth streak alongside drops in dollar and notional volume.
The pullback came from Polymarket's global platform, while its US subsidiary and Kalshi continued to grow.
Kalshi raised at a $22B valuation in March, with Polymarket reportedly targeting $15B in its next round.
The CFTC under new leadership is actively defending the sector, suing five states attempting to block event contracts under gaming laws.
Both firms are tightening insider trading controls as scrutiny intensifies, with Kalshi's sports contracts drawing the sharpest state-level pushback.

Our Take: The dip is a Polymarket-specific story, with global activity migrating to its US subsidiary as the platform restructures for CFTC compliance. Kalshi grew through the same window.

CoinShares Reports $7.4B AUM in First US Filing

Source: Coinshares

State of play: CoinShares posted $165.7M in 2025 revenue and $7.4B in gross AUM in its first annual report as a Nasdaq-listed company, following its $1.2B SPAC merger with Vine Hill.

Asset management revenue rose 13% to $126.4M, with the Physical fund ranking as the top digital asset ETP by net inflows in 2025.
Net income fell to $114.3M from $162.4M, mostly due to a one-time $36.8M FTX claim gain in 2024 and lower ETP pricing differentials.
Capital markets revenue dropped to $73.1M from $82.7M, though underlying performance ex-non-operational items grew 6.9% on staking, lending, and trading gains.
The firm holds both MiFID and MiCA authorizations, one of few asset managers cleared to run passive ETPs and active strategies across Europe.
Operating expenses fell 2.9% to $70.7M, with $481.3M in available capital including $176.7M in liquid assets.

Our take: The Nasdaq listing is the real story, giving CoinShares a US currency to compete with Bitwise and Grayscale as institutional ETP flows consolidate.

QUICK BITES

New York AG settles for $5M with Uphold.
BlackRock urges OCC to drop tokenized reserve cap idea.
Kraken parent Payward completes Bitnomial acquisition.
Coinbase says deal reached on Clarity Act stablecoin yield.
European crypto asset manager CoinShares records $7.4B AUM.
Tether posts over $1B Q1 profit as reserve buffer reaches record $8.2B.
Polymarket & Kalshi's combined lifetime volumes hit $150B in April.
Strategy pauses weekly bitcoin purchases ahead of Q1 earnings release.
A16z backs CFTC, says state-by-state rules on prediction markets create barrier.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

Ridark’s read on 500 winning Polymarket wallets.
Jason Rosenthal’s read on The New PMF Playbook.
The Smart Ape’s read on Why ethereum L2s aren't quantum safe.

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