#GateReserveRatioReaches118.49% $GT

118.49% looks like a number to celebrate, but I’d rather read it as a path. The ratio has moved a lot in four months, and the reason matters more than the level.

1. The path (published snapshots)
115% on Jun 22, 117% on Jul 27, a reported 127% on Aug 19, 117% on Sep 13, and 118.49% on Oct 18. That’s a 10-point drop from August to September, then a 1.5-point recovery now.

2. What moved it (my math)
Dividing reserves by the ratio gives implied customer liabilities: about $6.47B in August, $7.03B in September and $7.33B now. Since September, reserves rose 5.7% ($8.22B to $8.688B) while liabilities rose about 4.4%, so the ratio ticked up. Since August, liabilities are up about 13% against reserves up about 6%. So the ratio fell in September because more customer money arrived than reserves grew, not because reserves shrank. That fits the inflow story, and it also shows how the percentage can swing without anything being wrong.

3. Percentage vs dollars (my math)
The dollar surplus over liabilities is about $1.36B now, versus about $1.19B in September and about $1.75B in August. So the cushion is up from September but still about 22% below August.

4. The asset-level picture
BTC reserves are 25,727 against 21,156 in customer accounts (121.60%, up from 120.32%). ETH is 449,042 against 362,785 (123.78%, up from 123.59%). The four stablecoins are about $1.746B against about $1.497B (116.59%), and one dashboard lists USDT alone at 111.68% (single-source), up from a 1.0% excess in June. That’s the biggest improvement in the data. In coin terms, the BTC excess is about 4,571 BTC and the ETH excess is about 86,257 ETH (my math).

5. Where the rest sits (rough math)
At today’s chart prices, BTC and ETH reserves are about $3.2B, or roughly 37% of the total, and the four stablecoins are about 20%. That leaves around 43% in the other ~494 assets (rough, since snapshot-date prices differ). That long tail is the part I’d like to see broken out.

6. What a snapshot can’t show
It’s a point in time (Oct 18, published Oct 21) comparing reserves with customer balances. It doesn’t show off-chain liabilities or movements between reports. Users can verify their own balance, but it isn’t a full audit.

What I’d ask next: a top-20 asset breakdown, the stablecoin ratio by coin, how derivative balances are treated, and an independent attestation.

My take: solid, and improving where it matters most, in BTC, ETH and stablecoins. The level isn’t the signal. The trend and the composition are.

Not financial advice.

Which security metric matters most to you: the headline ratio, the asset-by-asset breakdown, or independent audits? And what one number would you add to the next report?