Tether Holds About 150,000 Bitcoin, CEO Paolo Ardoino Says

• Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the company holds about 150,000 Bitcoin.
• Tether’s Q3 report valued its Bitcoin reserves at $8.37 billion as of September 30.
• Excess reserves rose to $7.95 billion, and Q3 net operating profit was $1.5 billion.
• Direct and indirect Treasury bill exposure reached nearly $132.4 billion.
• Ardoino outlined the Independence Stack, covering energy, mining, wallets, communications and AI.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the stablecoin issuer holds about 150,000 Bitcoin. He shared the figure during his keynote at the Plan ₿ Forum in Lugano, Switzerland.

Ardoino said Tether holds “give or take 150,000 Bitcoin” on its corporate balance sheet. He did not give a wallet breakdown or a schedule of when the coins were bought.

The CEO also said Tether serves more than 730 million users worldwide. He said the company adds about 30 million new wallets every quarter.

Tether: a psychohistory interpretation.
My latest keynote. @tether pic.twitter.com/2dQUVAMZE5

— Paolo Ardoino 🤖 (@paoloardoino) October 27, 2026

Tether’s Bitcoin and Reserve Figures

Tether has bought Bitcoin since May 2023. That month, it started a policy of putting part of its profits into the cryptocurrency.

In its third-quarter report, Tether valued its Bitcoin reserves at $8.37 billion as of September 30. That compares with about $5.8 billion at the end of June.

The report values reserve assets on the reporting date. It does not fully match Ardoino’s company-wide Bitcoin estimate.

Tether published its third-quarter attestation, prepared by BDO, on October 30. It showed total reserve assets of $191.45 billion against liabilities of about $183.50 billion.

Excess reserves reached $7.95 billion, up from $4.1 billion at the end of June. Tether earned $1.5 billion in net operating profit in the quarter, bringing its nine-month total to $4.5 billion.

Directly held U.S. Treasury bills made up about $122.84 billion. Overnight reverse repurchase agreements added $9.52 billion, for nearly $132.4 billion in total Treasury bill exposure.

The report also listed $19.08 billion in gold and $14.18 billion in secured loans. USDT issuance stayed near $184 billion during the first nine months of 2026.

Ardoino Outlines the Independence Stack

Ardoino also introduced a technology plan he called the Independence Stack. It brings together tools built to work without relying fully on centralized service providers. His presentation drew on Isaac Asimov’s Foundation novels.

The plan covers energy, Bitcoin mining, communications, self-custody wallets and artificial intelligence. Ardoino said technology could help communities become more independent in these areas.

Tether has invested in solar-powered battery kiosks in Africa. Ardoino said about 5,000 kiosks serve two million users and support 30,000 women in the network. He outlined a plan to reach 100,000 kiosks over five years, which could serve 200 million people.

In October, 15 mining companies, manufacturers and pools backed Tether’s open-source Mining Development Kit. They include Bitmain, Bitdeer, Canaan, MicroBT, Foundry Digital and F2Pool.

The stack also includes Holepunch, a peer-to-peer communications system that does not need conventional central servers. Tether’s Wallet Development Kit offers software for building self-custodial wallets on multiple blockchains.

In September, Tether and Shiga announced plans for wallets serving people and institutions across Africa and the Gulf Cooperation Council. The products would support USDT, Bitcoin and Tether Gold, but no launch date was given.

Tether’s AI work runs through QVAC, a platform for running AI apps directly on personal devices. In October, the company released an offline speech recognition model for smartphones, smart glasses and robotics.

In Lugano, Ardoino described more models for medical help, translation, computer vision and speech. He said Tether’s research includes translation tools for 19 African languages and medical AI models with 1.7 billion and four billion parameters. He added that Tether’s profits allow it to fund these projects.