Tether, the USDT stablecoin’s issuer, has increased its Bitcoin assets by purchasing 7,629 BTC for a value of approximately $705,000,000. This is according to Arkham Intelligence on-chain data.
The purchase elevates Tether’s Bitcoin holdings to 82,983 BTC, worth approximately $7.68 billion as of press time. According to Bitinfocharts, the firm is now the world’s sixth largest Bitcoin owner.
The purchase is part of Tether’s strategy to allocate 15% of its profits to acquiring more Bitcoin, a plan first announced in May 2023.
Since then, it has continued to increase its Bitcoin holdings in every quarter, as part of its effort to diversify reserves that include gold and cash equivalents.
MiCA FUD
Tether’s latest acquisition comes as its flagship stablecoin, USDT, faces regulatory pressure in the European Union.
These rules have strict requirements for stablecoin issuers. They include a controversial mandate of 30% reserves in traditional financial institution.
Quinten François, co-founder of WeRate, argued that this requirement undermines operational efficiency by restricting the flexibility to generate income from assets like US treasuries, which is a cornerstone of Tether’s revenue strategy.
François also noted that this requirement could hamper Tether’s ability to use its profits to bolster its reserves and reduce the reliance on traditional financial systems.
Additionally, regulatory experts like BCAS IO’s Jonathan Galea clarified that stablecoins like USDT, which are not actively marketed in the EU, may not require MiCA authorization.
Galea claimed that the compliance issues might not be as serious as they seem, because trading platforms could list assets like these without direct issuer contact. He explained:
“USDt is not the only stablecoin which is not offered to the public in the Union. There’s a lot of other stablecoins out there the issuers of which will not need to be authorised under MiCA – just because someone is not authorised in line with a specific law does not make them non-compliant with that law.”
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, however, has called on the USDT community to reject the FUD surrounding this digital asset.
“USDT is Safe… Competitors are just desperate to make you believe things that don’t exist.”
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