Approximately 1,130 Bitcoin were added to holdings during the third quarter. The increase in the value of Bitcoin within reserve assets was primarily driven by price appreciation rather than large-scale purchases. According to Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, the company currently holds 150,000 Bitcoin, valued at approximately $11.5 billion.
Ardoino did not specify where the newly added Bitcoin is being held. Assets held by Tether outside of its USDT reserves, such as investments made through Tether Investments, do not appear in the reserve asset reports.
Based on calculations from two reporting periods, Tether's Bitcoin holdings within its reserve portfolio increased by approximately 1,130 coins during the third quarter. Over the same period, the value of Bitcoin in the reserve portfolio rose by $2.57 billion, with the majority of that gain coming from Bitcoin price appreciation. When calculating the value of the Bitcoin holdings at the end of June using September valuations, price appreciation alone contributed approximately $2.47 billion in gains.
Tether has previously stated that its proprietary investments held through Tether Investments are funded by excess capital and profits, and are managed separately from the reserve assets backing USDT, the dollar-pegged stablecoin. These holdings are not included in the reserve asset reports, though Ardoino did not clarify whether the difference in holdings between the two is attributable to this.
As of the end of September, Tether reported total reserve assets of $191.45 billion and total liabilities of $183.5 billion. Its excess reserves, the amount by which assets exceed liabilities, grew to $7.95 billion, up from $4.11 billion at the end of June. At that time, the company's financial buffer had shrunk by approximately half.
In May 2023, Tether announced that it would regularly allocate up to 15% of its realized net operating profits toward purchasing Bitcoin. The company stated that it would hold these Bitcoin itself rather than using third-party custodians.
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