Tether transfers 7,629 bitcoin to strategic reserve account, onchain data shows

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.