Key takeaways
- Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said at the Plan B Forum in Lugano that the company holds about 150,000 bitcoin, worth roughly $11.5 billion.
- Tether's September 30 reserve report values its bitcoin at $8.37 billion at $83,621.23 per coin, which works out to about 100,060 BTC.
- The roughly 50,000 coin gap may sit in group entities such as Tether Investments, which the USDT reserve report does not cover.
In this story 5 sections
About 50,000 bitcoin. That is the gap between what Tether's chief executive said the company owns and what its latest reserve report shows. The difference in Tether bitcoin holdings is worth roughly $3.8 billion at today's prices, and Tether has not yet explained where the extra coins sit.
Speaking at the Plan B Forum in Lugano, Switzerland, CEO Paolo Ardoino said Tether holds "give or take 150,000 bitcoin," according to CoinDesk. At a price near $76,900, that stack is worth about $11.5 billion. The company's own third quarter figures point to a smaller number.
Six figures from Tether's week
- 150,000 BTC: the amount Ardoino described on stage, valued by CoinDesk at about $11.5 billion.
- $8.37 billion: the bitcoin line in the September 30 reserve report, priced at $83,621.23 per coin.
- About 100,060 BTC: what that $8.37 billion works out to, up roughly 1,130 coins from about 98,930 at the end of June, per CoinDesk's math.
- $184 billion: USDT in circulation, which Tether described as broadly steady through the first three quarters.
- $7.95 billion: the reserve buffer, meaning assets above what Tether owes token holders, up from $4.1 billion at the end of the second quarter.
- $1.5 billion: Tether's net operating profit for the third quarter alone, out of $4.5 billion so far this year.
Where 50,000 bitcoin could be hiding
The simplest reading is that Ardoino was talking about the whole Tether group, not just the pool of assets that backs USDT. The reserve report covers Tether International, the entity that issues the stablecoin. Bitcoin owned by other parts of the business, such as the Tether Investments arm, would not show up in that report, as CoinDesk noted.
That matters because the two pools play different roles. Reserve assets are what stand behind every USDT token. Group holdings are the company's own bets, funded largely from profits. Ardoino did not say where the extra coins are held or when Tether bought them, so for now the group explanation is a likely answer rather than a confirmed one.
There is also a pricing wrinkle. The report values bitcoin at more than $83,000 a coin, while the market has since slid to the mid $70,000s. If you value the same 100,060 coins at today's price, the reserve line shrinks to about $7.7 billion. Bitcoin is one of the more volatile assets in the reserve mix, which is why the buffer number gets so much attention. For a refresher on why the price moves this much, see our guide on why bitcoin goes up and down.
What the $132.4 billion in Treasury bills says about USDT
Bitcoin is a minority of the reserves. According to Tether's third quarter release, direct and indirect holdings of US Treasury bills reached $132.4 billion. Total assets came to about $191.5 billion against liabilities of about $183.5 billion, almost all of it tied to tokens issued. The accounting firm BDO provided the attestation.
So even if the full $3.8 billion gap belongs to the group rather than the reserves, it does not change the backing math for USDT holders. What it does change is the picture of how much bitcoin exposure the company carries overall. At 150,000 coins, Tether would rank among the largest known corporate holders of bitcoin.
Why the number lands during the Binance fallout
The timing is not random. Crypto markets are still absorbing the $6.4 billion Binance theft, which we covered in what the hack means for your account. On November 2, Tether said it froze more than $1.5 billion in USDT connected to the hack, keeping those funds away from wallets linked to North Korea, according to a company release.
Money is also still leaving Binance. CoinDesk reported net withdrawals of about $4.72 billion since the exchange reopened on Sunday, adding to the outflows we tracked in our Binance withdrawals report. US spot bitcoin ETFs shed $399 million on Monday, with BlackRock's IBIT accounting for $405 million of outflows on its own, according to Farside Investors data cited by CoinDesk.
Against that backdrop, a large stablecoin issuer saying it holds more bitcoin, not less, reads as a signal of confidence. It also raises the bar for disclosure. If the group holds 150,000 coins, readers of the next quarterly report will want to see where the other 50,000 live, and on what terms.
Reading the next attestation
Three lines are worth checking when Tether publishes its fourth quarter figures: the bitcoin value and the per coin price used, the size of the reserve buffer, and any note separating reserve assets from group investments. If the bitcoin line jumps by tens of thousands of coins, Ardoino's figure was about the reserves. If it does not, the extra bitcoin sits elsewhere in the company. Either answer will tell USDT holders more about how bitcoin gets its value inside a stablecoin's balance sheet.
More coverage of stablecoins and exchanges is on our crypto page.
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