Tether Reportedly Bought 8.9K Bitcoin for $380M, Remaining 11th-Largest BTC Holder

Tether added to its bitcoin (BTC) holdings at the end of the fourth quarter, buying 8,888 more BTC for $380 million, The Block reported.

An address associated with the company shows bitcoin holdings of 66,465, which makes it the 11th-largest holder of the cryptocurrency, according to a ranking by Dune Analytics.

In an effort to shift away from cash and cash-like assets such as U.S. Treasury bonds backing its USDT stablecoin, Tether announced in May 2023 that it would start allocating as much as 15% of its profits into bitcoin. USDT is the world’s largest stablecoin with a market capitalization of over $95 billion.

In its latest attestation report, Tether held $72.6 billion in government bonds and $1.7 billion in bitcoin, among other allocations.

The company has long been under the microscope for the quality of its assets, but Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, whose firm acts as a custodian for Tether, this week reassured skeptics that its holdings are legit.

The Switzerland-based company first purchased bitcoin in September 2022.