Tether holds approximately 150,000 bitcoin — a stash worth roughly $11.5 billion at recent prices — CEO Paolo Ardoino said, a figure that exceeds the holdings implied by the company's latest reserve attestation by around 50,000 coins.

The disclosure came during Ardoino's keynote at the Plan ₿ Forum in Lugano, Switzerland, the annual gathering where the company has promoted bitcoin and stablecoin adoption since 2022.

“We have give or take 150,000 bitcoin ourselves. It’s not much, but it’s honest work,” Ardoino told the audience.

At that size, the stack would rank Tether among the largest corporate holders of bitcoin in the world, behind Strategy's 848,517 BTC (as of Q3) and ahead of most publicly listed miners and corporate treasury companies.

Ardoino did not say where the additional coins are held, when they were purchased, or whether they belong to the stablecoin issuer itself or to Tether Investments, the group arm that holds its venture and equity positions. The remark does not indicate a new 50,000 BTC purchase.

JUST IN: Tether now holds approximately 150,000 Bitcoin worth $11.5 billion, CEO Paolo Ardoino announces pic.twitter.com/s7HLmXwkQE
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Tether International's third-quarter reserve report, published Oct. 30 with an attestation from BDO, lists $8.37 billion in bitcoin valued at $83,621.23 per coin as of Sept. 30. Attestations confirm balances as of a single date rather than auditing a company's books in full, which shapes what each disclosure covers. That implies about 100,060 BTC on the attested balance sheet, up roughly 1,130 coins from the approximately 98,930 held at the end of June. Most of the quarter's $2.57 billion increase in the bitcoin line came from price appreciation rather than new purchases. The attestation was published ahead of Ardoino's announcement.

The gap between the attested report and Ardoino's figure has a plausible home. Tether has said that investments it makes from profits are kept separate from the reserves backing USDT, meaning coins held by Tether Investments would not appear in the quarterly attestation.

Tether's bitcoin exposure extends beyond its own wallets. The company took full control of Twenty One Capital in May after buying out SoftBank, backs Adecoagro's bitcoin mining operations in Brazil, and runs mining and energy ventures across Latin America. Whether any of those positions sit inside the 150,000 figure is unclear.

Tether's Buffer Built on Bitcoin and Gold

The disclosure lands as Tether's balance sheet grows more dependent on the two assets, even as its overall cushion strengthens. The Q3 report shows $191.45 billion in reserve assets against $183.50 billion in liabilities (which consist primarily of USDT in circulation), an excess of $7.95 billion — up from $4.11 billion in June, when the cushion had halved.

Bitcoin at $8.37 billion and gold at about $19.1 billion together exceed that buffer several times over, meaning a sharp drop in either asset would eat into it. Treasury bills remain the bulk of reserves at roughly $132.4 billion.

Tether earned about $1.5 billion in the third quarter and $4.5 billion in the first nine months of the year. In August, the company completed its first independent audit with KPMG, ending years of reliance on attestations alone. Ardoino said at the forum that USDT has more than 730 million users and is adding about 30 million wallets per quarter.

Bitcoin traded near $77,600 on Tuesday, a level that puts Tether's stated holdings at $11.6 billion and its attested holdings at about $7.8 billion, below the Sept. 30 mark. The company has not said whether it plans to publish a breakdown of the coins held outside the reserve, or how the figure will be reflected in future attestations. Tether publishes these reserve reports quarterly, making the year-end report the next scheduled snapshot of the attested bitcoin line.

This article first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and was written by Micah Zimmerman.