Tether entered 2026 as one of many high 5 largest holders of Bitcoin (BTC).
The issuer of stablecoin USDT bought 8,888 BTC on Dec. 31, 2025. As of Jan. 1, these reserves had been valued between $8.4 billion and $8.5 billion.
The acquisition, value round $779 million on the time, introduced Tether’s disclosed Bitcoin holdings to greater than 96,000 BTC.
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The acquisition aligns with Tether’s broader reserve technique, which incorporates Bitcoin as a core asset alongside money, U.S. Treasuries, and gold. The corporate helps greater than $140 billion value of USDT tokens in circulation.
Tether has constantly allotted as much as 15% of its quarterly earnings towards Bitcoin purchases, complementing its investments in bodily gold and different reserve belongings.
Nonetheless, the transfer comes amid renewed scrutiny over Tether’s transparency. In December, S&P World downgraded the stablecoin’s score to five (weak), “5 (weak)”, the bottom grade on its five-point stablecoin threat scale launched in 2023.
The company cited “persistent gaps in disclosure” and a rising share of “high-risk belongings” in Tether’s reserves, which embrace Bitcoin, gold, company bonds, secured loans and different investments.
In response, Tether stated it:
“Strongly disagrees with the characterization introduced within the report.”
The agency pointed to its historical past of sustaining full stability and permitting redeemability of USDT whereas withstanding banking crises, change failures, liquidity shocks, and excessive market swings.
Tether has additionally been quietly accumulating bodily gold as a part of its diversified reserve technique. As of the third quarter of 2025, Tether holds about 116 metric tons of bodily gold, with a market worth within the low-double-digit billions of {dollars}. This accumulation locations it forward of virtually all personal entities and rival funding funds, making it the biggest non-sovereign (personal) gold holder on this planet, even in contrast with gold ETFs and personal traders.
The Bitcoin acquisition comes a month after Tether shut down its Bitcoin mining operations in Latin America.
In November, Tether introduced it might shutter its Bitcoin mining operations in Uruguay after failing to safe favorable power pricing. The corporate had beforehand touted plans to make use of renewable power sources for mining within the area.