plate 045 · 2026 data

Tether now holds more US Treasuries than the UAE

US Treasury holdings by foreign holder, US$ billion. One stablecoin issuer sits among the nations.

Trade and money rewired
  1. 1. Mexico, not China, now sells America the most goods
  2. 2. China's ASEAN trade is now almost double its US trade
  3. 3. Central banks now hold more gold than Treasuries or euros
  4. 4. China now pays the world mostly in yuan
  5. 5. Migrants now send home four times all foreign aid
  6. 6. Tether now holds more US Treasuries than the UAE
  7. 7. Developing countries' interest bill has nearly tripled since 2010
  8. 8. America's duty-free parcels grew almost tenfold in nine years
  9. 9. Poles edge past the Japanese in income per person
  10. 10. In dollars, Nigeria's economy has more than halved since 2014
  11. 11. Argentina's monthly inflation fell from 25.5% to 1.9%
  12. 12. Guyana now produces more per person than America
  13. 13. Mexico's factories now outproduce Britain's and France's
  14. 14. Ukraine received four times the aid of any other country
  15. 15. The UAE sold more goods abroad than France in 2025
  16. 16. Singapore now draws twice as much foreign investment as China
  17. 17. The EU now buys more US gas than Russian gas
  18. 18. Malaysia again sells more to America than to China
  19. 19. 22 governments now owe more than a year's national output
  20. 20. Brazil mines 93% of the world's niobium
  21. 21. More Vietnamese now work in industry than on farms
  22. 22. Money sent home to Guatemala nearly quadrupled in ten years
  23. 23. In purchasing power, Russia's economy is now bigger than Japan's
  24. 24. Indonesia set to use more palm oil than it exports
  25. 25. Factories now make more of Cambodia's economy than China's
$132.4bn

Tether's direct and indirect US T-bill holdings on 30 September 2026.

19th

Where Tether would slot among foreign holders, just behind South Korea at $134.2bn.

$16.3bn

Tether's lead over the UAE ($116.1bn). Germany is no longer even in the top 20.

Source: US Treasury, TIC Table 5: Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities (Aug 2026); Tether, Q3 2026 BDO attestation, 2026
the numbers & method
Tether now holds more US Treasuries than the UAE. Source: US Treasury, TIC Table 5: Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities (Aug 2026); Tether, Q3 2026 BDO attestation, 2026.
US Treasuries held (bn)
Taiwan298.4
Switzerland285.8
Singapore277.9
Hong Kong261.5
India219.7
Norway214.0
Brazil168.4
Saudi Arabia141.2
South Korea134.2
Tether (stablecoin issuer)132.4
United Arab Emirates116.1
Bermuda111.8

Claim types Fact · Interpretation

Country values are end-August 2026 (TIC, released 16 Oct 2026). Tether's $132.4bn is as of 30 Sep 2026 per its own press release (tether.io, 30 Oct 2026); it includes T-bill-backed overnight reverse repos (~$9.5bn); direct T-bills were $122.84bn per press summaries of the attestation. Dates differ by one month. TIC attributes holdings by the country of the holder or custodian, so it is not a clean measure of sovereign ownership. Tether is incorporated in El Salvador; TIC's El Salvador line ($93.8bn, Dec 2025) likely reflects part of its holdings (interpretation). Germany is outside the TIC top 20 (below $111.8bn) in Aug 2026; it was $103.1bn in Dec 2025. Circle (USDC) left out: no comparable verified Q3 2026 figure.

Published 28 Oct 2026

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what connects to this

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