 Tether shifts $780M in Bitcoin to reserve — its biggest move in 9 months 
2024-12-31
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Stablecoin issuer Tether moved nearly $780 million worth of Bitcoin into its corporate Bitcoin reserve in its largest move since March.
Arkham Intelligence shows wallets tagged for Tether’s Bitcoin BTCUSD reserve as having received separate transfers of around 7628.9 BTC and 775.6 BTC on Dec. 30, totaling just under 8404.5 BTC.
The latest BTC additions are worth a total of $777.4 million, with Bitcoin hovering around $92,500. It brings Tether’s total holdings to 83,759 BTC, worth just under $7.75 billion.
Tether, which issues the stablecoin of the same name, Tether USDTUSD, first said in May 2023 that it planned to “regularly allocate up to 15% of its net realized operating profits towards purchasing Bitcoin.”
It’s the company’s first significant move since March 31, when the firm added around 8888.88 BTC just weeks after the cryptocurrency broke past $70,000 for the first time and soared past a long-held all-time high.
Bitcoin has gone on to double in price over 2024 and is currently up over 108% on the year, though it has been trading down this week, and is down from its mid-December all-time high of around $108,000 
Tether has the second-largest Bitcoin holdings among privately owned businesses, beaten only by the 140,000 BTC holdings from blockchain software firm Block.one, according to Bitbo data.
In all, Tether’s holdings put it in third place overall for both private and public companies, which software firm MicroStrategy leads with its 446,400 BTC holdings. 
Corporate Bitcoin treasuries have seen a bump in popularity with Bitcoin’s price rise over the year, with a handful of firms announcing they’re putting the cryptocurrency on their books in hopes of boosting their share prices.
One of the latest Bitcoin adopters, KULR Technology Group, said on Dec. 16 that it spent $21 million buying 217.18 Bitcoin, which saw its stock price close up more than 40% that day to an all-time high of $4.80.
Additionally, the biopharmaceutical company Quantum BioPharma on Dec. 20 said it bought $1 million worth of BTC and other crypto assets to diversify its treasury.