Tether, the issuer of the largest fiat-backed stablecoin, has sent 7,629 BTC — worth approximately $700 million — to its bitcoin reserve address, according to onchain data from Arkham Intelligence. The tokens were sent from sister exchange Bitfinex’s hot wallet approximately an hour ago at 14:00 UTC.
This is the largest transaction sent to Tether’s strategic bitcoin reserve since March 2024, when it transferred 8,888.88 BTC, according to BitInfoCharts. The firm also sent 8,888.88 BTC to the fund on the last day of 2023.
Tether announced it would start allocating as much as 15% of its profits into bitcoin in May 2023 and now holds over $7.6 billion worth of BTC (over 82,000 coins). The decision was an attempt to diversify the company’s holdings during a year when it began to print cash.
The company’s largest stablecoin, the dollar-pegged USDT, is primarily backed by U.S. Treasury bonds and other cash equivalents, many of which generate yield that Tether reinvests. In recent years, Tether has made a conscious effort to diversify its holdings and invest its capital in emerging sectors like AI, bitcoin mining and decentralized communications.
In the first half of 2024, for instance, Tether generated a record $5.2 billion profit, CEO Paolo Ardoino previously told The Block.
Monday’s multi-million bitcoin transaction is not yet represented on Tether’s transparency page, which was last updated on Dec. 30, 2024.
