Tether Owns $11.5 Billion Worth Of Bitcoin

Leading stablecoin provider Tether (CRYPTO: $USDT) has reported owning 150,000 Bitcoin (CRYPTO: $BTC) worth $11.50 billion U.S. based on the current market price.

The Bitcoin holdings were disclosed as part of the company’s latest report on the reserves backing its USDT stablecoin.

Tether also reported having more than 730 million users of its stablecoin worldwide and an average 30 million digital wallets that hold USDT coin.

The company increased its Bitcoin holdings by 1,130 tokens during this year’s third quarter. 

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies whose value is pegged to an underlying asset, most often the U.S. dollar or price of gold. 

In all, Tether reported having $191.45 billion U.S. in reserve assets against $183.50 billion U.S. in liabilities at the end of September. 

The company’s excess reserves, the assets that outstrip its liabilities, rose to $7.95 billion U.S. from $4.11 billion U.S. at the end of June this year. 

Tether announced in 2023 that it would allocate up to 15% of its operating profits to Bitcoin purchases. 

The company holds the Bitcoin itself rather than use third-party custodians to store the cryptocurrency.

BTC is trading at $77,000 U.S. on Nov. 3.