Stablecoin giant Tether has bought more Bitcoin (BTC)This brings his total holdings of digital assets to over $2.8 billion.
Blockchain data shows A BTC address linked to Tether received 8,888 BTC – $379 million – at the end of December.
The purchase increased Tether's holdings to a total of 66,465 BTC. This means it is one of the largest private companies to hold BTC. Tether continuously snapped up BTC throughout 2023. In May, the company announced that it would begin using profits to purchase Bitcoin to maintain its reserves. It also said that it plans to start mining Bitcoin later the same month.
Tether mints USDT– the third largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin and Ethereum with a market capitalization of $94.5 billion, after to CoinGecko.
But aside from its large market cap, USDT is the most widely traded digital asset: it is a Stablecoin– a cryptocurrency backed by a real, stable asset such as the US dollar – and is therefore often used by traders buying and selling digital assets.
Stablecoins like USDT streamline the process of converting Bitcoin – or any other cryptocurrency – into dollars, euros or yen on an exchange.
The company behind the largest stablecoin is controversialHowever: There has been criticism in the past for not being transparent enough to disclose that cryptocurrency is actually backed by what it claims to be – cold, hard cash.
Connection agreed to stop doing business in New York after a two-year investigation by the New York attorney general found that the company made “false statements about support” of its stablecoin in 2021.
Along with crypto exchange and sister company Bitfinex, the company agreed to pay $18.5 million in penalties to end the 22-month government investigation into its activities.
But Tether appears to have the backing of at least one major traditional financial firm. In a message to critics, Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick told CNBC in December that the Wall Street broker owned “a majority” of the stablecoin issuer's treasuries. “I'm keeping their treasuries – and they have a lot of treasuries, they're now over $90 billion,” he said.
Earlier this week, Lutnick doubled down on his statement, bluntly telling Bloomberg that Tether had the supposed reserves. “They have the money,” he said.
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