Tether, the company behind the USDT stablecoin, could now be the 11th largest Bitcoin holder in the world. This comes after the stablecoin issuer recently released its Q2 2023 certification report.
According to the report, Tether saw an increase in excess reserves, which increased by $850 million. This brought the company’s total excess reserves to approximately $3.3 billion.
These excess reserves are profits that the company doesn’t distribute to shareholders as dividends. Instead, Tether keeps them to top up its 100 percent reserves, which are used to back up all USDT in circulation and for token stability.
Tether holds $1.6 billion worth of BTC in a single wallet?
Last quarter, Tether announced that it held more than $1.5 billion worth of BTC (approximately 53,495 BTC) in its reserves. Based on the latest quarterly report, that number has increased by more than $176 million, bringing the company’s bitcoin holdings to around $1.676 billion (roughly 55,022 BTC).
Tom Wan, Research Analyst at 21.co, found As of the last quarter, Tether may have held all of its bitcoins in one wallet, making it the 12th largest BTC holder at the time. In the second quarter of 2023, it seems that the analyst has confirmed his initial speculation.
In Q1, Tether’s “possible” wallet address’s BTC holdings matched the BTC amount published in the company’s attestation report. This address’s BTC balance also increased in Q2, matching the amount reported in Tether’s Q2 report.
The analyst noted that only one Bitcoin address matches Tether’s BTC reserve numbers. And that address, possibly owned by the stablecoin issuer, is now the 11th largest bitcoin holder in the world.
While Wan reached out to Tether and the company’s CTO, Paolo Ardoino, to confirm his findings, there was no official confirmation from the stablecoin issuer.
Tether’s BTC holdings are consistent with the original plans
This significant amount of BTC that Tether holds in its reserves comes as no surprise as the company has always been clear about its Bitcoin investment intentions. In May, the stablecoin issuer announced plans to invest 15% of its future earnings in bitcoin.
Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino, a vocal supporter of Bitcoin, explained that the cryptocurrency’s resilience is what drives the company’s continued investments in the asset.
Ardoino said:
The decision to invest in Bitcoin, the world’s first and largest cryptocurrency, is underpinned by its strength and potential as an investment asset. Bitcoin has consistently demonstrated its resilience and has evolved into a long-term store of value with significant potential for growth. Its limited supply, decentralized nature, and widespread adoption have made Bitcoin a preferred choice among both institutional and retail investors.
However, there have been concerns about the risks of Tether and USDT due to increased investment in a highly volatile asset like Bitcoin.
As of this writing, USDT is the largest stablecoin in the cryptocurrency market with a market cap of around $83.81 billion.
USDT Market Cap at $83.79 Billion on Daily Timeframe | Source: TradingView USDT chart
Featured image by Wit Olszewski/Alamy, Chart by TradingView
Learn Crypto Trading, Yield Farms, Income strategies and more at CrytoAnswers
https://nov.link/cryptoanswers
Comments are closed.