Paolo Ardoino told his Plan ₿ Forum keynote in Lugano that Tether holds “give or take 150,000 bitcoin ourselves,” adding, “It’s not much, but it’s honest work.” At current prices that is about $11.5 billion of bitcoin on the company’s balance sheet.
Tether’s third-quarter reserve report lists $8.37 billion of bitcoin, which implies roughly 100,060 coins. Ardoino did not account for the other 50,000, and no public filing does either.
The Reserve Report Implies 100,060 Bitcoin, Not 150,000
The quarterly report, attested by BDO and published on 30 October, values the bitcoin at $83,621.23 per coin as of 30 September. CoinDesk calculates that the figure implies about 100,060 BTC, up roughly 1,130 from about 98,930 at the end of June.
The reserve report added 1,130 coins in the quarter, which makes the 50,000 outside it the larger number. Source: Tether Q2 and Q3 2026 reserve reports, CoinDesk · Chart: FinanceFeedsThe reserve report covers what backs USDT, while Tether Investments sits outside that perimeter, so coins held there would not appear. Ardoino did not specify whether that accounts for the difference, or when the coins were bought, and the company has not since explained it.
The distinction matters for anyone reading the report as a full picture of the company. A reserve attestation describes what stands behind the token, and an issuer can own assets beyond it.
Only 4% of the Quarter’s Bitcoin Gain Came From Buying
The reserve bitcoin position rose $2.57 billion in the third quarter. About $2.47 billion of that was price rather than purchases, by CoinDesk’s calculation, which leaves roughly $100 million of actual buying.
That is a slow pace against the policy announced in May 2023, when the company said it would direct up to 15% of net realized operating profits into bitcoin and self-custody the coins. The company reported $1.5 billion of net operating profit in the third quarter alone.
Investor Takeaway
The attested report implies about 100,060 bitcoin and Ardoino says 150,000, a gap of roughly 50,000 coins worth close to $3.8 billion that no public document accounts for.
Tether’s Bitcoin Is Now Bigger Than Its Safety Buffer
Excess reserves nearly doubled in the quarter, reaching $7.95 billion from $4.11 billion in June, against reserve assets of $191.5 billion and liabilities of $183.50 billion.
Set the two numbers side by side and the bitcoin is the larger one. The attested $8.37 billion of bitcoin is about 105% of the $7.95 billion buffer, so a sharp enough fall in the price would erode the cushion between what it owns and what it owes.
Bitcoin has fallen roughly 8% from the $83,621.23 the attestation used, which would take about $660 million off the reserve holding before counting anything else. US Treasury bills still do the heavy lifting at $132.4 billion, or about 69% of reserves, alongside gold holdings now reported at $19.08 billion and $14.18 billion of secured loans.
USDT Supply Has Fallen About $5 Billion Since the Attestation Date
Tether reported $183.47 billion of digital tokens issued at the end of September. DefiLlama put USDT’s market value at $178.489 billion on 3 November, a decline of roughly $4.98 billion, or 2.7%, over the five weeks since.
Most of that supply sits on two chains, with $92.44 billion on Tron and $69.47 billion on Ethereum. Revenue has not followed the token count down, and DefiLlama recorded $538.6 million of Tether fees in October, the highest month in its series going back to December 2024, with the trailing year annualizing at $5.96 billion.
The contraction coincides with a punishing stretch for crypto, including the $6.3 billion Binance theft in which Tether froze hundreds of millions of USDT, and 322 recorded incidents and $8.73 billion of losses this year. The company has spent the period diversifying, buying gold by the ton and launching a federally regulated US dollar token.
Investor Takeaway
The attested bitcoin position is larger than the excess reserve buffer, so the cushion backing USDT moves with the bitcoin price.
