Tether will hold this much Bitcoin after the end of 2023

Stablecoin giant Tether bought more than $360 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) at the beginning of the year – data on chain.

The purchase brings the company's total Bitcoin holdings up to 66,400 BTC for $2.7 billion.

Tether's massive bitcoin purchases

According to Bitcoin market data provider CryptoQuant, the blockchain address formerly known as Tethers increased its balance from 57,500 BTC to 66,400 BTC on January 4.

This is the largest one-day increase for the address since late March 2023. In May, Tether announced that 2% of its reserves are held in Bitcoin, and plans to allocate 15% of its operating profit to BTC.

“Tether is now the 11th largest holder of Bitcoin in the world,” wrote a CryptoQuant analyst in August of the company's newly acquired wallet balance.

At the time, a digital asset analyst at 21Shares said it identified the Tether wallet by comparing the suspected address holdings to the company's quarterly verification reports. Block later confirmed with a private source that the address belonged to Tether.

The address first received $654 million worth of Bitcoin transactions in September 2022 at a price of 33,900 BTC, which means that the coins have more than doubled over the past 15 months despite the rising price of Bitcoin.

Tether is one of the most profitable companies in the crypto industry. Its Tether (USDT) token – which currently has a market cap of $94 billion – is backed 100% by the same amount of reserves, mostly cash and short-term US Treasuries.

How Tether spends its money

According to its latest confirmation, the company made a profit of $1 billion in Treasuries and other cash-like investments in Q3 alone.

The company is currently using most of its profits to expand research around Bitcoin and the crypto industry, and to bolster its “profit reserve” from volatility in Tether's risky investments. As of Q3, the company held $3.2 billion in excess reserves, including positions in gold and bitcoin.

Tether is entering the Bitcoin mining industry. In June, the firm backed initial fundraising efforts for El Salvador's $1 billion Bitcoin mining initiative.

Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick confirmed in an interview this week that his company has taken Tether's holdings and assured investors that the tokens are fully backed.