World's largest private gold holder joins top five Bitcoin holders

Tether entered 2026 arsenic 1 of the apical 5 largest holders of Bitcoin (BTC).

The issuer of stablecoin USDT purchased 8,888 BTC connected Dec. 31, 2025. As of Jan. 1, those reserves were valued betwixt $8.4 cardinal and $8.5 billion.

The acquisition, worthy astir $779 cardinal astatine the time, brought Tether’s disclosed Bitcoin holdings to much than 96,000 BTC.

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The acquisition aligns with Tether’s broader reserve strategy, which includes Bitcoin arsenic a halfway plus alongside cash, U.S. Treasuries, and gold. The institution supports much than $140 cardinal worthy of USDT tokens successful circulation.

Tether has consistently allocated up to 15% of its quarterly profits toward Bitcoin purchases, complementing its investments successful carnal golden and different reserve assets.

However, the determination comes amid renewed scrutiny implicit Tether’s transparency. In December, S&P Global downgraded the stablecoin’s standing to 5 (weak), “5 (weak)”, the lowest people connected its five-point stablecoin hazard standard introduced successful 2023.

The bureau cited “persistent gaps successful disclosure” and a rising stock of “high-risk assets” successful Tether’s reserves, which see Bitcoin, gold, firm bonds, secured loans and different investments.

In response, Tether said it:

“Strongly disagrees with the characterization presented successful the report.”

The steadfast pointed to its past of maintaining afloat stableness and allowing redeemability of USDT portion withstanding banking crises, speech failures, liquidity shocks, and utmost marketplace swings.

Tether has besides been softly accumulating carnal golden arsenic portion of its diversified reserve strategy. As of the 3rd 4th of 2025, Tether holds astir 116 metric tons of carnal gold, with a marketplace worth successful the low-double-digit billions of dollars. This accumulation places it up of astir each backstage entities and rival concern funds, making it the largest non-sovereign (private) golden holder successful the world, adjacent compared with golden ETFs and backstage investors.

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The Bitcoin acquisition comes a period aft Tether unopen down its Bitcoin mining operations successful Latin America.

In November, Tether announced it would shutter its Bitcoin mining operations successful Uruguay aft failing to unafraid favorable vigor pricing. The institution had antecedently touted plans to usage renewable vigor sources for mining successful the region.