Tether, the issuer of USDT, announced in May last year that it would regularly allocate 15% of its net profits to purchase Bitcoin. As a result, its holdings have continued to grow, making it the 10th largest holder of Bitcoin, with a total of 66,465 BTC, valued at approximately $2.996 billion. This represents an almost doubling of its value compared to the first quarter of last year, which was $1.5 billion.
Tether became the 10th largest holder of Bitcoin
The value of Tether’s Bitcoin reserves nearly doubled
USDT’s market value reached new highs
Tether, the largest issuer of stablecoins, announced in May last year that it would allocate up to 15% of its net profits to purchase Bitcoin and diversify its asset reserves. According to Tom Wan, an analyst at 21co, when Tether’s financial report for the second quarter of last year was released, he discovered that the Bitcoin address used by Tether to purchase Bitcoin held approximately $1.67 billion worth of Bitcoin, representing an increase of approximately 1,529 BTC compared to the first quarter of last year. At that time, Tom pointed out that Tether could be the 11th largest holder of Bitcoin.
Yesterday, data analyst Yu Yan stated that Tether has risen to become the 10th largest holder of Bitcoin. He pointed out that Tether recently withdrew approximately $379 million worth of 8,888.88 BTC from the Bitfinex exchange, which is the amount of additional purchase made in the fourth quarter of last year. Interestingly, the number 8888.88 seems to have a celebratory meaning for the arrival of 2024, making it very auspicious.
Currently, Tether holds a total of 66,465 BTC. With Bitcoin’s price rising over 5% in the past 24 hours to reach approximately $45,000, the market value of these Bitcoin holdings is about $2.996 billion. Compared to the first quarter of last year when the Bitcoin asset value was only $1.5 billion, the current value has nearly doubled. According to Yu Yan, the average cost at which Tether acquired these Bitcoins is approximately $25,176. Based on the current market price, this means that Tether’s unrealized profit has reached approximately $1.323 billion, equivalent to a staggering 78% return on investment.
Tether’s USD stablecoin USDT is the most dominant stablecoin in terms of market share. According to CoinGecko data, its market value surpassed $90 billion for the first time in mid-December and is currently around $91.73 billion, continuously reaching new highs and accounting for a market share of up to 72.05% in the stablecoin market.
Tether’s third-quarter financial report revealed that its cash and cash equivalents reached a record high, accounting for 85.7% of total reserves. These assets primarily include US Treasury bonds, totaling $72.6 billion, to ensure liquidity and stability of the stablecoin ecosystem.
In addition, as of September 30th, Tether accumulated $3.2 billion in excess reserves, with only $2 billion in secured loans, and as of October 31st, Tether is estimated to have $4.2 billion in excess reserves, with the scale of secured loans reduced to only $900 million.