Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the stablecoin giant now holds around 150,000 Bitcoin, worth roughly $11.5 billion at current prices. The figure exceeds what the company’s own reserve disclosures imply by some 50,000 coins.
“We have give or take 150,000 bitcoin ourselves. It’s not much, but it’s honest work,” Ardoino said at the Plan ₿ Forum in Lugano, Switzerland.
Tether’s Q3 reserve attestation listed $8.37 billion in Bitcoin holdings, a figure that implies approximately 100,060 coins at the $83,621 per-coin price used in the attestation. The 50,000-coin gap between Ardoino’s claim and the Q3 figure represents roughly $3.8 billion in value at current prices.
Separate Corporate Investments
Tether maintains that corporate Bitcoin investments sit separately from reserves supporting USDT stablecoin. Ardoino’s statement did not clarify whether the additional 50,000 coins fall into the corporate investment category or represent a discrepancy in reserve accounting.
The company announced in May 2023 a plan to funnel up to 15% of net realized operating profits into Bitcoin. Tether reported $1.5 billion in net operating profit in Q3 alone, suggesting substantial capacity for Bitcoin accumulation under that policy.
Tether has been accumulating Bitcoin for years and custodies coins itself rather than relying on third-party custodians. Ardoino did not disclose when the additional 50,000 coins were acquired or where they are held.
Reserve Attestation and Audit
Tether’s Q3 report showed total assets of $191.45 billion against liabilities of $183.50 billion, creating an excess cushion of $7.95 billion. The company reported an excess cushion of $4.11 billion in June.
Tether began its first full financial audit with KPMG this year. The company has faced years of scrutiny over whether USDT is fully backed.
Tether serves 730 million users worldwide and added 30 million wallets per quarter. The company has run a Bitcoin and stablecoin adoption program in Lugano since 2022.
