Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has revealed that the stablecoin issuer owns approximately 150,000 Bitcoin as the company continues investing in digital assets and financial infrastructure.
Summary
- Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the company owns nearly 150,000 Bitcoin, although he did not provide a detailed breakdown of those holdings.
- Ardoino claimed Tether serves more than 730 million users worldwide, adding around 30 million new wallets every quarter.
- Tether’s Q3 2026 attestation recorded $132.4 billion in direct and indirect U.S. Treasury bill exposure.
- The company’s excess reserves reached $7.95 billion at September’s end, while quarterly net operating profit stood at $1.5 billion.
- Ardoino outlined Tether’s Independence Stack, covering energy, Bitcoin mining, communications, self-custody wallets and artificial intelligence.
According to Ardoino’s Plan ₿ Forum keynote in Lugano, Switzerland, Tether holds “give or take 150,000 Bitcoin” on its corporate balance sheet. The executive discussed the holdings alongside the company’s financial position and its plans to develop technologies beyond stablecoin payments.
Ardoino claimed Tether serves more than 730 million users globally, with approximately 30 million new wallets added every quarter. He described the company’s expansion as part of its continuing financial inclusion efforts.
Tether CEO reveals 150,000 Bitcoin holdings
During the keynote, Ardoino discussed Bitcoin as one of the assets supporting Tether’s long-term investment strategy.
The almost 150,000 BTC figure represents the CEO’s estimate of the company’s holdings. He did not provide a separate wallet breakdown or acquisition schedule during the presentation.
Tether has purchased Bitcoin as part of its investment activities since introducing a policy in May 2023 to allocate a portion of its profits to the cryptocurrency.
Its latest financial disclosures provide additional information about Bitcoin held among the assets backing USDT.
In its third-quarter report, Tether valued Bitcoin reserves at $8.37 billion as of September 30, compared with approximately $5.8 billion at June’s end.
The accounting report values reserve assets at the reporting date and does not provide a complete reconciliation to Ardoino’s company-wide Bitcoin estimate.
Beyond Bitcoin, the company’s investments include precious metals, government securities and other financial assets.
Ardoino has continued presenting Bitcoin and USDT as important parts of Tether’s operations while discussing plans for energy, communications and software development.
Tether’s Treasury holdings reach $132.4 billion
Tether’s financial position received a separate update on October 30, when the company published its third-quarter attestation prepared by BDO.
The official announcement showed total reserve assets of $191.45 billion against liabilities of approximately $183.50 billion.
Its excess reserves reached $7.95 billion, compared with $4.1 billion at the end of June.
As crypto.news previously reported, Tether generated $1.5 billion in net operating profit during the third quarter, bringing its nine-month total to $4.5 billion.
Directly held U.S. Treasury bills accounted for approximately $122.84 billion. Overnight reverse repurchase agreements added $9.52 billion.
Together, those categories represented nearly $132.4 billion in direct and indirect Treasury bill exposure, according to Tether.
The reserve report separately listed $19.08 billion in gold and $14.18 billion in secured loans.
USDT issuance remained near $184 billion during the first nine months of 2026, with Treasury-related income contributing to the company’s earnings.
Tether outlines its Independence Stack initiative
Alongside the financial figures, Ardoino introduced a technology initiative he called the Independence Stack.
The project brings together several technologies designed to operate without depending entirely on centralized service providers.
His presentation drew inspiration from Isaac Asimov’s Foundation novels, which describe efforts to preserve knowledge during a fictional period of civilizational decline.
Ardoino said technology could help communities become more independent in areas such as financial services, energy and communication.
The company has invested in solar-powered battery kiosks serving communities across Africa. According to Ardoino, approximately 5,000 kiosks serve two million users and support 30,000 women working within the network.
He outlined a plan to reach 100,000 kiosks over five years, potentially serving 200 million people.
Bitcoin mining forms another part of the initiative.
In October, Tether secured support from 15 mining companies, manufacturers and pools for its open-source Mining Development Kit.
The participating companies include Bitmain, Bitdeer, Canaan, MicroBT, Foundry Digital and F2Pool.
Tether expands wallet and AI development
Tether’s Independence Stack includes Holepunch, a peer-to-peer communications system intended to support applications without conventional centralized servers.
Its Wallet Development Kit provides software for building self-custodial wallets across multiple blockchain networks.
In September, Tether and Shiga announced plans for wallets serving individuals and institutions across Africa and the Gulf Cooperation Council.
The proposed products would support USDT, Bitcoin and Tether Gold, although the companies did not announce a launch date.
Artificial intelligence forms another part of the program through QVAC, Tether’s platform for running AI applications directly on personal devices.
The company released an offline speech recognition model in October, designed for smartphones, smart glasses and robotics.
During the Lugano presentation, Ardoino described further models for medical assistance, translation, computer vision and speech processing.
He said Tether’s research included translation tools covering 19 African languages and medical AI models with 1.7 billion and four billion parameters.
Ardoino described the company’s approach as building technologies that could remain available independently of Tether’s future operations.
The executive said Tether’s profitability allowed it to fund these projects, including development work on decentralized infrastructure and locally operated AI software.
