Tether pulls in $16.4 million in a day, outpacing Tron and Circle

The USDT issuer topped 24-hour revenue rankings on DefiLlama, powered almost entirely by yield on its reserves Tether generated $16.4 million in fee revenue over a single 24-hour window. That put the USDT issuer ahead of both Tron and Circle in the daily revenue rankings. DefiLlama dashboards from late October 2026 show Tether’s 24-hour fees and revenue at somewhere between approximately $16.38 million and $16.99 million. The range reflects slightly different readings across the dashboards. Either way, the stablecoin giant sat at the top of the blockchain revenue leaderboard. Where the money actually comes from Tether’s daily haul did not come from on-chain transaction fees. According to the DefiLlama data, all of it was sourced off-chain. Tether and Circle earn revenue from yields on the reserves that back their tokens. Those reserves include US Treasury bills and repurchase agreements, which are short-term loans backed by government securities. Every USDT in circulation represents a dollar parked in assets that pay interest, and Tether keeps that interest. Circle, which issues the USDC stablecoin, runs a similar playbook. It also earns yield from its reserve assets. In this snaps...