Tether owns roughly 150,000 bitcoin, according to CEO Paolo Ardoino. That stake was worth about $11.5 billion at prices reported Tuesday. For someone holding USDT, Tether’s dollar stablecoin, the more relevant figure is about 100,060 BTC. That’s how much bitcoin the issuer’s latest reserve report implies it held on September 30.
The figures come from different dates and cover different things. Ardoino described Tether’s overall holdings at the Plan ₿ Forum in Lugano, Switzerland, in a keynote he shared on October 27. Tether International’s quarterly report covers the assets it counted toward its liabilities, almost all of which were outstanding tokens.
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How Tether compares with Strategy, BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF and other holders
Tether’s company-wide estimate is roughly 18% of Strategy’s bitcoin holdings and 13 times Tesla’s. Even the smaller amount implied by the USDT reserve report is about 2.3 times Metaplanet’s. The two Tether figures have different scopes and dates and should not be added together.
| Company, fund or reserve portfolio | Bitcoin held | Disclosure |
|---|---|---|
| Strategy | 849,327 BTC | November 1 |
| BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) | 806,543 BTC | November 2, fund holdings |
| Tether, company-wide estimate | About 150,000 BTC | October keynote |
| Tether International, USDT reserve portfolio | About 100,060 BTC | September 30, implied by the reserve report |
| Metaplanet | 44,000 BTC | September 30 |
| Twenty One Capital | 43,514 BTC | June 30 |
| Strive | 43,124 BTC | October 30 |
| Tesla | 11,509 BTC | September 30 |
IBIT holds bitcoin for the fund’s shareholders. Its November 2 holdings file shows 806,543 BTC rounded to the nearest coin. That is about 5.4 times Tether’s company-wide estimate and 8.1 times the bitcoin in its USDT reserve portfolio.
Where the 100,060 bitcoin figure comes from
The September reserve report, which carries an attestation from accounting firm BDO, valued the issuer’s bitcoin at $8.37 billion. Divide the reported dollar balance by its quarter-end price of $83,621.23 per coin and the result is about 100,060 BTC.
CoinDesk’s comparison with the June report puts the increase at roughly 1,130 BTC over three months. The dollar value rose much faster, by about $2.57 billion. Most of that gain came from bitcoin becoming more valuable while Tether held it.
Tether says it also invests its own profits separately from the USDT reserves. Ardoino gave no breakdown of where the roughly 50,000 BTC difference sits or when those coins were acquired. His remarks leave the timing of any purchases open.
What backs a dollar of USDT?
Bitcoin accounted for about 4.4% of Tether International’s $191.45 billion in reported reserve assets at quarter-end. Its largest position by far was $132.4 billion in direct and indirect U.S. Treasury bill holdings, about 69% of the total. Put another way, for every $100 in reserves, roughly $4.40 was bitcoin and $69 was exposure to short-term U.S. government debt.
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Against those assets, the issuer reported $183.50 billion in liabilities. That left a $7.95 billion cushion, up from $4.11 billion in June. Treasury bills and short-term lending backed by securities generated most of Tether’s operating income during the first nine months of the year, according to its quarterly release.
“Our responsibility is to make sure USD₮ remains dependable when people need it most, including when markets and financial systems come under pressure.”
— Paolo Ardoino, CEO, Tether
For a USDT holder, bitcoin’s price matters because it can move the value of that cushion in either direction. The token still targets one dollar. As with Tether’s gold holdings, the first question to ask about a company-wide figure is how much of the asset the issuer actually counts in its reserves.
Reporting by Eric Spivak
