Bitcoin held within two institutional reserve zones

Tether Says Its Bitcoin Stack Has Reached Roughly 150,000 BTC

By Isaac • November 3, 2026 8:00 am • Comments

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino says the company now holds roughly 150,000 Bitcoin, a position worth about $11.5 billion at current prices.

That would make the stablecoin issuer one of the largest corporate Bitcoin holders in the world. It also creates a major accounting question, because the figure is about 50,000 BTC higher than the Bitcoin balance implied by Tether’s latest reserve report.

A CoinDesk analysis says Ardoino disclosed the number during his Plan ₿ Forum keynote in Lugano, Switzerland. He described it as “give or take” 150,000 BTC, but did not provide wallet addresses, an acquisition schedule or a breakdown showing where every coin sits.

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The report compared that estimate with Tether International’s third-quarter reserve statement. The filing listed $8.37 billion in Bitcoin at a valuation of $83,621.23 per coin, which implies approximately 100,060 BTC in the portfolio backing USDT.

That reserve balance was up by roughly 1,130 BTC from June. Most of the reported dollar increase came from Bitcoin’s higher quarter-end price, rather than a 50,000-coin purchase inside the USDT reserve portfolio.

Tether has maintained since 2023 that it directs up to 15% of realized operating profits into Bitcoin and holds those purchases itself. Its proprietary investment assets are separate from the reserves backing USDT, so the larger company-wide estimate may include coins held outside the stablecoin portfolio.

The report also puts the claim in the context of Tether’s broader balance sheet: $191.45 billion in reserve assets, $183.50 billion in liabilities and a $7.95 billion excess-reserve cushion at September’s end. Ardoino said Tether now reaches more than 730 million users and adds roughly 30 million wallets per quarter.

Ardoino posted the full keynote to X, where he framed Tether’s Bitcoin position as one piece of a wider push into mining, communications, wallets, energy and artificial intelligence.

The 50,000-Bitcoin gap

Tether International’s third-quarter reserve report listed $8.37 billion in Bitcoin valued at $83,621.23 per coin. That works out to approximately 100,060 BTC, up from about 98,930 BTC at the end of June.

The difference does not automatically mean the new figure is wrong. Tether has said its proprietary investments are funded from profits and excess capital and kept separate from the reserves backing USDT.

That structure could account for Bitcoin held outside the stablecoin reserve portfolio. Tether has not published the breakdown needed to verify that explanation.

Ardoino did not say whether that structure accounts for the entire difference. Until Tether publishes a wallet-level breakdown or a future attestation reconciles the company-wide total, 150,000 BTC remains a management estimate rather than an independently traceable balance.

A huge position with a large cushion

Tether reported $191.45 billion in reserve assets against $183.50 billion in liabilities at the end of September. Its excess-reserve cushion rose to $7.95 billion from $4.11 billion in June, while third-quarter net operating profit came in at $1.5 billion.

Those numbers matter because Tether began allocating up to 15% of realized operating profits to Bitcoin in 2023. Under that policy, the company says the purchases come from profits rather than from the assets required to redeem USDT.

A Bitcoin drawdown would therefore hit Tether’s capital cushion before it touched the one-for-one backing of tokens in circulation, assuming the assets remain separated as described.

The scale is still extraordinary. A 150,000-BTC position represents more than a year of current Bitcoin mining output and puts a major piece of the crypto trading system on both sides of the market: Tether operates the dominant dollar stablecoin while holding a massive stake in Bitcoin itself.

The next quarterly report will be the key checkpoint. If Tether’s disclosures begin to reconcile the reserve portfolio with the larger company-wide figure, investors will get a clearer picture of how much Bitcoin sits behind USDT and how much belongs to Tether’s separate investment balance sheet.

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