Paolo Ardoino, chief executive of Tether, said the company holds approximately 150,000 bitcoin worth $11.5 billion, a figure that exceeds the holdings implied by Tether’s latest reserve attestation by roughly 50,000 coins.
Ardoino made the statement during his keynote at the Plan ₿ Forum in Lugano, Switzerland on November 3. “We have give or take 150,000 bitcoin ourselves. It’s not much, but it’s honest work,” he said.
At that volume, Tether would rank among the largest corporate bitcoin holders, behind MicroStrategy’s 848,517 BTC and ahead of most public miners and treasury companies.
Discrepancy with Reserve Report
Tether International’s Q3 reserve report, published October 30 with attestation from BDO, lists $8.37 billion in bitcoin as of September 30. That figure implies approximately 100,060 BTC, based on the $83,621.23 bitcoin price used in the valuation.
The gap between Ardoino’s stated holding and the attested figure raises questions about how Tether accounts for its bitcoin across different entities. Tether Investments, the company’s venture and equity arm, holds positions separately from reserves backing USDT stablecoin, according to the company. Coins held in Tether Investments would not appear in the reserve attestation.
Q3 holdings increased by roughly 1,130 BTC from the end of June, when Tether held 98,930 BTC. Most of the $2.57 billion rise in the bitcoin line came from price appreciation rather than new purchases.
Mining and Reserve Expansion
Tether’s bitcoin operations have expanded in recent months. The company took full control of Twenty One Capital in May after buying out SoftBank. Tether also backs Adecoagro, a mining operation in Brazil, and runs mining and energy ventures across Latin America.
The Q3 report shows $191.45 billion in reserve assets against $183.50 billion in liabilities, an excess of $7.95 billion, up from $4.11 billion in June. Bitcoin and gold reserves together, totaling roughly $19.1 billion in gold holdings plus the $8.37 billion in bitcoin, exceed that buffer several times over.
Treasury bills remain the bulk of reserves at approximately $132.4 billion. Tether earned $1.5 billion in Q3, bringing nine-month earnings to $4.5 billion.
Tether completed its first independent audit with KPMG in August. The company serves 730 million USDT users and added 30 million wallets per quarter.
