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In an ecosystem where every decision by crypto leaders reshapes the market balance, Tether displays its ambitions. From the Bitcoin 2025 stage in Las Vegas, Paolo Ardoino revealed that the USDT issuer holds more than 100,000 bitcoins and 50 tons of gold. It is no longer just a stablecoin company: it is a strategic asset player. By unveiling these reserves, Tether not only reassures but asserts its role in the new global financial architecture.
In Brief
- Tether revealed at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas that it holds more than 100,000 bitcoins and over 50 tons of physical gold.
- These assets represent a combined value of more than 16 billion dollars and aim to strengthen the solidity of USDT’s reserves.
- Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, justified the inclusion of gold in the reserves by explaining it is not a competitor to Bitcoin but an alternative to fiat currencies.
- This diversification strategy brings Tether closer to a quasi-institutional role, halfway between a stablecoin issuer and a crypto central bank.
Tether Shows Its Vaults : An Unprecedented Treasure
While Tether voluntarily maintains its position outside the European market, refusing to comply with the MiCA regulation as Paolo Ardoino explained, the company continues to show remarkable financial results.
At his presentation at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas on May 29, 2025, the CEO projected a slide that immediately caught the audience’s attention. It displayed the latest updated data on the assets held by the company.
To general surprise, Ardoino revealed that Tether now holds more than 100,000 bitcoins, representing a value exceeding 10 billion dollars, as well as more than 50 tons of physical gold. “Tether is probably the most profitable company in the crypto industry,” he declared to the audience.
This statement is supported by the impressive figure of 13 billion dollars in net profits realized in 2024.
This data complements and updates the figures already published in Tether’s official report at the end of the first fiscal quarter of 2025. This document specified that :
- Bitcoin reserves were valued at more than 7 billion dollars, based on an average price of $83,000/BTC ;
- Gold reserves took the form of standardized physical bars, with a value exceeding 6 billion dollars ;
- These assets are intended to support the circulation of the USDT stablecoin, the most used worldwide.
By displaying such transparency about its holdings, Tether sends a strong signal to the markets. The company aims to consolidate its credibility and respond to the persistent criticisms regarding the composition and solidity of its reserves.
A Symbolic and Strategic Choice : Tether Redefines Its Role in the Ecosystem
By integrating gold into its reserves, Tether is not just diversifying its assets. It sends a message to both ends of the financial spectrum. Aware that this decision might raise questions from an audience mostly composed of bitcoin maximalists bitcoin, Paolo Ardoino sought to dispel any ideological ambiguity.
He specified :
Many bitcoiners don’t like to talk about gold, as if it could take something away from bitcoin. That is not the case. Bitcoin is perfect. Gold is imperfect. However, gold does not compete with bitcoin; it competes with fiat. And that is why we like to have some gold.
This position sheds light on a pragmatic approach: gold is not here to rival BTC, but to better counter fiat currencies.
This positioning fits into a wider global movement reconfiguring the role of crypto treasuries, where some players, like Twenty One Capital which recently acquired 458 million dollars in bitcoin, or Cantor Fitzgerald, which launched a BTC-exposed fund with gold coverage, adopt similar strategies.
Far from anecdotal, Tether’s choice reflects a desire to anchor itself in a quasi-systemic logic, close to that of a private crypto central bank, capable of operating sheltered from the dollar’s sole fluctuations.
In the future, this dual reserve, bitcoin and gold, could strengthen the resilience of the Tether model, while offering USDT an enhanced status as a crypto backed by hard assets. If this strategy inspires confidence, it also raises questions: should it be seen as the dawn of a new era for stablecoins, whose demand is exploding, or the beginning of a shift toward an even more concentrated market power in the hands of a few private giants? The industry will need to closely follow the evolution of this strategy amid rising regulation and macroeconomic instability.
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Diplômé de Sciences Po Toulouse et titulaire d’une certification consultant blockchain délivrée par Alyra, j’ai rejoint l’aventure Cointribune en 2019.
Convaincu du potentiel de la blockchain pour transformer de nombreux secteurs de l’économie, j’ai pris l’engagement de sensibiliser et d’informer le grand public sur cet écosystème en constante évolution. Mon objectif est de permettre à chacun de mieux comprendre la blockchain et de saisir les opportunités qu’elle offre. Je m’efforce chaque jour de fournir une analyse objective de l’actualité, de décrypter les tendances du marché, de relayer les dernières innovations technologiques et de mettre en perspective les enjeux économiques et sociétaux de cette révolution en marche.
DISCLAIMER
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and should not be taken as investment advice. Do your own research before taking any investment decisions.
