Reserve composition
Reserves & backingWhat the issuer actually holds against outstanding tokens: T-bills, overnight repo, bank deposits, commercial paper, crypto collateral, or a mix.
Not all backing is equal. Short-dated Treasury bills and overnight reverse repo are liquid on a same-day basis. Uninsured bank deposits are a concentrated counterparty exposure — the 2023 depeg of a major US stablecoin was a deposit problem, not a Treasury problem.
Longer-duration or credit-sensitive holdings introduce mark-to-market risk exactly when redemptions spike.
Read the maturity ladder and the custodian list, not just the headline collateral percentage.
Why it matters
Reserve quality determines whether the issuer can honour a redemption wave without selling at a loss.
See it in action
Related terms
An attestation is an accountant's point-in-time confirmation of reserve balances. A full audit is a broader opinion on financial statements. Most stablecoins publish the former.
Value of collateral divided by value of outstanding tokens. Fiat-backed designs target ~100%; crypto-backed designs deliberately run well above it.
Whether reserve assets are legally segregated from the issuer's estate, so holders are paid ahead of general creditors if the issuer fails.
Which regime the issuer operates under — for example EU MiCA e-money tokens, a NYDFS trust charter, or a Singapore/UAE licence — and the reserve, reporting and redemption duties that come with it.