Tether Owns 150,000 Bitcoin Valued at $11.5 Billion, States CEO Paolo Ardoino

Nov 3, 2026, 5:15 a.m. EST

2 min read

Summary

Tether Chief Executive Officer Paolo Ardoino stated that the prominent stablecoin creator possesses roughly 150,000 BTC, which exceeds its most recent reserve documentation by approximately 50,000 coins.
Tether’s Q3 filing registers $8.37 billion in bitcoin, pointing to about 100,060 BTC, marking an increase of about 1,130 coins since June.
Ardoino refrained from disclosing the storage location of these additional coins. Assets maintained outside of USDT backing, such as corporate investments by Tether, would not be reflected in that document.

Dominant stablecoin creator Tether presently controls roughly 150,000 bitcoin BTC, representing an evaluation of about $11.5 billion based on current rates, according to Chief Executive Officer Paolo Ardoino—exceeding the figures suggested by the firm’s latest documentation regarding reserves supporting its stablecoin by roughly 50,000 units.

“We possess approximately 150,000 bitcoin ourselves. It is not an enormous amount, but it represents honest labor,” Ardoino remarked during his Plan ₿ Forum keynote presentation situated in Lugano, Switzerland.

Ardoino omitted details regarding the storage location of the extra coins or the timeline of Tether’s acquisition, meaning the statistic does not point to a fresh 50,000 BTC acquisition.

His remarks arrived during a discussion on how Tether backs the Bitcoin network, following his disclosure that Tether serves over 730 million participants internationally while experiencing quarterly expansion rates of 30 million wallets.

The third-quarter reserve statement for Tether International, featuring an independent review from auditing firm BDO, documents $8.37 billion worth of bitcoin calculated at $83,621.23 per individual coin. The precise metrics within the disclosure point to a stockpile of roughly 100,060 BTC, contrasted with approximately 98,930 units recorded at the close of June.

That reflects an expansion of nearly 1,130 BTC throughout the third quarter. The lion’s share of the $2.57 billion escalation in the reserve portfolio’s bitcoin valuation stemmed from rising market rates, given that applying September valuation metrics to June holdings accounts for roughly $2.47 billion of that growth, derived from CoinDesk computations comparing both documents.

Tether has previously noted that its proprietary ventures, managed via Tether Investments, draw capital from surplus earnings and net gains while remaining isolated from the reserves supporting USDT, its dollar-pegged stablecoin. Such holdings sit outside the scope of the reserve documentation, though Ardoino refrained from confirming whether they account for the discrepancy.

The enterprise documented $191.45 billion in total reserve instruments against liabilities totaling $183.50 billion as of September’s conclusion. Its surplus reserves, representing assets surpassing total obligations, climbed to $7.95 billion compared to $4.11 billion in June, at which point its financial buffer had contracted by roughly half.

Tether disclosed in May 2023 that it would consistently allocate up to 15% of realized net operating gains toward bitcoin acquisitions. The enterprise noted it would retain these coins internally rather than relying on third-party custodial services.