Tether announced that more than $4 billion worth of its USDT stablecoins were issued on the Tron and Ethereum blockchains over the past month. This is slightly less than a fifth of its annual plan.

Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino explained that the new USDT issuance was a “replenishment of USDT reserves.” In total, Tether planned to mint $22.75 billion worth of USDT in 2023, of which $13 billion, or 57%, would be issued on the Tron blockchain, and the remaining $9.75 billion on the Ethereum blockchain.

Tether’s aggressive issuance of stablecoins, which collectively amounted to about 18% of its full year plan, coincides with Moody’s decision to downgrade the US credit rating outlook from stable to negative.

Tether previously reported its reserves for the third quarter of the year. According to the report, the issuer’s excess reserves amounted to $3.2 billion. The total amount of Tether’s total assets reaches $86.38 billion, a significant part of the reserve funds, amounting to $72.6 billion, is stored in US Treasury bonds.