Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino: the company holds approximately 150,000 bitcoins

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino announced at the Plan ₿ Forum in Lugano, Switzerland, that the company's corporate balance holds "plus-minus 150,000 bitcoins." He did not provide an exact breakdown by wallets or a purchase schedule. Tether has been buying bitcoin since May 2023, when it introduced a policy of directing part of its profits into this asset. Ardoino also stated that Tether serves over 730 million users, adding about 30 million new wallets each quarter.

How many bitcoins are in reserves and how much the company earned

In the report for the III quarter, Tether estimated its bitcoin reserves at $8.37 billion as of September 30, compared to approximately $5.8 billion at the end of June. The report assesses assets as of the publication date and does not provide a full reconciliation with Ardoino's estimate of all the company's bitcoins. On October 30, Tether published an attestation for the third quarter, prepared by BDO: reserve assets amounted to $191.45 billion against liabilities of about $183.50 billion, with excess reserves of $7.95 billion compared to $4.1 billion at the end of June. Net operating profit for the quarter was $1.5 billion, and for nine months, $4.5 billion. Direct investments in U.S. Treasury bills amounted to $122.84 billion, with an additional $9.52 billion in overnight reverse repos: together about $132.4 billion. Separately, gold was listed at $19.08 billion and secured loans at $14.18 billion; USDT issuance for the nine months of 2026 was about $184 billion.

What is included in the Independence Stack: kiosks, mining, and wallets

Ardoino presented the Independence Stack initiative – technologies designed to operate without full reliance on centralized providers. The name is inspired by Isaac Asimov's "Foundation." Tether has invested in solar kiosks with batteries in Africa: about 5,000 kiosks serve 2 million users and support 30,000 women; the plan is 100,000 kiosks over five years and up to 200 million people. In October, the open Mining Development Kit was supported by 15 manufacturers, miners, and pools, including Bitmain, Bitdeer, Canaan, MicroBT, Foundry Digital, and F2Pool. The stack includes Holepunch – peer-to-peer communication, Wallet Development Kit for self-custody wallets, and QVAC – a platform for running AI on personal devices. In September, Tether and Shiga announced wallets for Africa and Gulf countries supporting USDT, bitcoin, and Tether Gold, but without a launch date.