Tether Holdings Ltd., the stablecoin issuer that was pulled into the spotlight this week during the confirmation hearing for Donald Trump’s pick to run the Commerce Department, said it made an eye-popping $13 billion in profits last year.

Alongside record profits, USDT issuer Tether also reported Friday it now holds over $143 billion in reserve assets to back the stablecoin.

Lightning Labs, the company behind Bitcoin layer 2 Lightning Network, is using the Taproot Assets protocol to integrate Tether’s USDT stablecoin. Tether said it’s bringing its namesake stablecoin to Bitcoin through the layer 2 scaling service, the Lightning Network.

Tether announced the integration of USDT with Bitcoin's base layer and Lightning Network using Taproot Assets protocol, enabling faster transactions and expanding payment possibilities while maintaining Bitcoin's security features.

Tether integrates USDT into the Bitcoin Lightning Network. The launch comes amid mounting scrutiny over Tether’s audits and EU exit. Despite regulatory challenges, Tether recently