Tether moved 951 bitcoin from a Bitfinex hot wallet into an address labelled as its bitcoin reserve, according to Arkham Intelligence data.
The transfer was worth $70.5 million at current prices and continues Tether’s practice of periodically consolidating bitcoin into its reserve wallet.
Tether’s bitcoin holdings now total 97,141 BTC, making the company the second-largest private corporate holder behind Block One, Bitcoin Treasuries data shows. Strategy remains the largest publicly-traded holder of BTC.
The company began buying bitcoin in September 2022 and "announced that it would allocate 15% of its net profits each quarter toward bitcoin purchases" in May 2023, per The Block reporting.
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The move echoes prior activity: last November Tether moved 961 BTC (then worth $97 million) from Bitfinex to its reserve, and last June it withdrew 14,000 BTC from its reserve to an address labelled as belonging to Twenty One Capital. Bitcoin was trading for $73,936 as of 1:02 p.m. ET on Wednesday, according to The Block Price Page, and about 4% of Tether’s more than $190 billion of reserves backing USDT are held in bitcoin, the company’s website says.
The transfer underscores Tether’s ongoing strategy of increasing bitcoin holdings as part of a stated long-term diversification plan.
The recap
- Tether received 951 BTC from a Bitfinex hot wallet.
- Tether's bitcoin reserve totals 97,141 BTC after the transfer.
- Company allocates 15% of net profits each quarter toward bitcoin.