Overview
- Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino disclosed at the Plan ₿ Forum in Lugano that the company holds roughly 150,000 Bitcoin, a figure he announced on Tuesday and did not break down by wallet or date of acquisition.
- Tether’s Oct. 30 Q3 attestation, prepared by BDO, valued Bitcoin on-reserve at $8.37 billion as of September 30 and showed $191.45 billion in total reserve assets, $183.50 billion in liabilities and $7.95 billion in excess reserves.
- The company has followed a policy since May 2023 to devote up to 15% of quarterly net profit to Bitcoin purchases, a program that produced large buys including 8,888 BTC on December 31, 2025 and accelerated accumulation through 2026.
- Ardoino also outlined an 'Independence Stack' of projects — covering energy kiosks in Africa, Bitcoin mining tools, self-custody wallet kits, peer-to-peer communications and on-device AI — that Tether says it will fund from profits and existing operations.
- The CEO’s 150,000 BTC estimate is a company-wide number not fully reconciled with the Sept. 30 attestation, a gap that highlights questions about available cash versus mark-to-market crypto gains and that may draw closer market and regulatory scrutiny.