Tether says 150k BTC but the reserve report shows ~100k?

[DKeller]

Ardoino said at Plan B that Tether has “give or take” 150k BTC. Problem is their Q3 reserve report only shows $8.37B in bitcoin which is around 100k coins. Where’s the other 50k?

He didn’t say. Probably Tether Investments, they keep that separate from USDT reserves so it wouldn’t be in the attestation anyway. Fine, but that’s billions in BTC and all we have is him saying it on stage lol. No audit, no wallet addresses, nothing.

Funny part is the reserves only added like 1,130 BTC in Q3, most of the “growth” was just price. Not exactly the monster stacking people talk about.

Do you guys actually care where the coins sit as long as USDT is backed? And with BTC dropping, is having bitcoin in the reserves even a good idea?

Read it here: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/11/03/tether-holds-150-000-bitcoin-worth-usd11-5-billion-ceo-paolo-ardoino-says

[Dunamisx]

Do you guys actually care where the coins sit as long as USDT is backed? And with BTC dropping, is having bitcoin in the reserves even a good idea?

How long does it remains now that the Bitcoin they are holding will begin to pump than falling, everyone will definitely resulted back to bitcoin because there is always a secured future with it, but anything that has to do with their accountability and transparency with the investment they have in Bitcoin is left to be their own internal issue which I expect them to deal with.

[_act_]

For anyone that is not able to access the information on the link DKeller listed, you can use this link ti read about it: https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/crypto/articles/tether-says-holds-150-000-174751694.html

The remaining 50000 BTC is reported as Tether investments and not part of the reserves backing USDT which is the reason Tether did not disclose it.

And with BTC dropping, is having bitcoin in the reserves even a good idea?

It is not bad to have bitcoin as part of the reserves so far it is not large up to the extent bitcoin price fall will affect the price of USDT.

[CucakRowo]

Ardoino said at Plan B that Tether has “give or take” 150k BTC. Problem is their Q3 reserve report only shows $8.37B in bitcoin which is around 100k coins. Where’s the other 50k?

This is a kind of trust me bro policy, lol.

And with BTC dropping, is having bitcoin in the reserves even a good idea?

NGL, this is double edged sword.
When Bitcoin pumps, their balance sheet will look great.
But once Bitcoin starts to dump, this volatility poses a major risk to their entire system.

Imo, holding Bitcoin is far safer than bloating your balance sheet with junk like fiat currency or government bond.

Do you guys actually care where the coins sit as long as USDT is backed?

Hell yeah, I care!

Because if these centralized black boxes were to collapse one day, they would drag entire crypto market down into abyss.

I think that, following the cases of MtGox, Celsius, FTX, no one is willing to blindly trust any executive who stands on a stage and offer verbal guarantees, expecting everyone to simply take their word for it.

[Upgrade00]

It is not bad to have bitcoin as part of the reserves so far it is not large up to the extent bitcoin price fall will affect the price of USDT.

Not as bad as not having your entire coins in circulation backed up but pushing more minted coins into the market to inflate value. It is so like tether to give a vague report of their btc holdings.

I am fine with bitcoin as part of the reserve. It is only part of a percentage and has shown strong levels of stability even through bear crashes like the one we are in.

[tabas]

I think that, following the cases of MtGox, Celsius, FTX, no one is willing to blindly trust any executive who stands on a stage and offer verbal guarantees, expecting everyone to simply take their word for it.

I remember the Terra UST, Luna foundation and Do Kwon, et. al's collapse. The start of the action at that time was they've reportedly buying BTC as part of their reserve. And they have aimed to hold tons of it. But when it's seen not to be sustainable and the value of their UST stable coin starts to depeg and drop, they've sold their massive holdings. So, I think that it won't be the same as this, we can't say that Tether is too big to fail, right? With genuine information they are publicizing, it has to be an outright info rather than a publicity stunt.

[Dogedegen]

And with BTC dropping, is having bitcoin in the reserves even a good idea?

NGL, this is double edged sword.
When Bitcoin pumps, their balance sheet will look great.
But once Bitcoin starts to dump, this volatility poses a major risk to their entire system.

Imo, holding Bitcoin is far safer than bloating your balance sheet with junk like fiat currency or government bond.

Not really, this is a misunderstanding of how risk works. You can't just take price goes down and this is a major risk as a conclusion, that is not even superficial risk assessment. For example, if you buy Bitcoin significantly with debt then your risk is very high from any negative movements even more if your debt repayment is related to the price appreciating. The opposite example of this is if you buy Bitcoin with your own capital, temporary swings have no effect at you at all. The risk of them is zero.

Do you guys actually care where the coins sit as long as USDT is backed?

Hell yeah, I care!

Because if these centralized black boxes were to collapse one day, they would drag entire crypto market down into abyss.

I think that, following the cases of MtGox, Celsius, FTX, no one is willing to blindly trust any executive who stands on a stage and offer verbal guarantees, expecting everyone to simply take their word for it.

You have a very weird and biased opinion here. If USDT is backed, if they have an extra 50k BTC or 35 BTC or 500k BTC makes no difference to you at all. You can't compare exchange platforms to USDT. As long as USDT is backed, what else they have and how much they have of it has no relation to you or anyone else. It is a private company, and besides proof of backing or sufficient reserves you need to mind your business.

I think that, following the cases of MtGox, Celsius, FTX, no one is willing to blindly trust any executive who stands on a stage and offer verbal guarantees, expecting everyone to simply take their word for it.

I remember the Terra UST, Luna foundation and Do Kwon, et. al's collapse. The start of the action at that time was they've reportedly buying BTC as part of their reserve. And they have aimed to hold tons of it. But when it's seen not to be sustainable and the value of their UST stable coin starts to depeg and drop, they've sold their massive holdings. So, I think that it won't be the same as this, we can't say that Tether is too big to fail, right? With genuine information they are publicizing, it has to be an outright info rather than a publicity stunt.

This is literally not what happened, so stop spreading false information. Buying Bitcoin correctly is and always will be sustainable, you need to learn to think in detail and not make false generalizations about everything and everyone who is richer than you. The collapse of UST had nothing to do with their Bitcoin buying, and it is not relevant to USDT at all. Just because some things use the same word identifier such as stablecoin, that does not mean you can compare them directly as if they were the same thing.

And with BTC dropping, is having bitcoin in the reserves even a good idea?

It is not bad to have bitcoin as part of the reserves so far it is not large up to the extent bitcoin price fall will affect the price of USDT.

Honestly I can't believe that we are even talking about this stupid thing because it makes no sense. Look at the Tether reserves top 3 according to ChatGPT.

U.S. Treasury bills $122.84B
Gold $19.08B
Bitcoin $8.37B

Even if Bitcoin goes to $0 it has no relevance to USDT and creates zero risk for it. People really need a digital detox of negativity and paranoia.. Keep calm and investigate data before you make any conclusions, your life will thank you.  

[PrivacyG]

I do not really care whether Tether has 150 thousand Bitcoin, 100 thousand or zero as I do not care about Tether.  I do think it is a good idea to hold some Bitcoin no matter if you are Tether, an average person or a random company.  However.  I would rather have all that Bitcoin spread across more hands than just a few Billionaires purchasing it.  Because at this point, way too much of the Supply is owned by a handful of people or companies.

Now about the report.  I doubt they would publicly lie about 50 THOUSAND Bitcoin, it would not do them any favor at all.  See the answer given by _act_, I am not able to open the link he provided but I suppose your answer lies right there.

[Ayers]

but anything that has to do with their accountability and transparency with the investment they have in Bitcoin is left to be their own internal issue which I expect them to deal with.

Actually when any company claim to hold one of world’s largest corporate Bitcoin reserve. And only evidence provided is a speech delivered on stage. Then it ceases to be merely an internal matter. Especially when that company is leading stablecoin in crypto market. If those additional 50k coin actually exist. And if they are leveraged or held within some opaque structure then any trouble that arise will have negative impact on all of us.

I am not saying that every of their private investment must be disclosed to everyone.
I just want them not to view minimal due diligence as mere PR exercise.
We have seen before how such movie ends.

[EluguHcman]

Funny part is the reserves only added like 1,130 BTC in Q3, most of the “growth” was just price. Not exactly the monster stacking people talk about.

Did you also realizes that the growth is a determinate of the values of the bitcoin which is measured by the price?
There's no two ways about it and don't complicate it because when you talk about the bitcoin growth does not emphasize any other notation apart from the range of price.

You can also assume the stacking has the potential influence of driving the market Capitalization as much as investors and demands has the strong role to influence the Bitcoin price or adoption growth.

Do you guys actually care where the coins sit as long as USDT is backed? And with BTC dropping, is having bitcoin in the reserves even a good idea?

Having Bitcoin on reserve is as good as having gold or other potential assets to your portfolio with the same purpose of backing up your finance for future use.
So it worth it as long Bitcoin remains valuable.

[PX-Z]

Do you guys actually care where the coins sit as long as USDT is backed? And with BTC dropping, is having bitcoin in the reserves even a good idea?

Read it here: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/11/03/tether-holds-150-000-bitcoin-worth-usd11-5-billion-ceo-paolo-ardoino-says

Tether has been sanctioned, fined and sued before due to their mistakes of undocumented due to false, misleading, or undocumented claims regarding the dollar reserves backing. I don't think its wise for them to do the same mistake again. It's very expensive mistake after all.

As per records all their proofs are documented and verified.

[tbct_mt2]

Ardoino said at Plan B that Tether has “give or take” 150k BTC. Problem is their Q3 reserve report only shows $8.37B in bitcoin which is around 100k coins. Where’s the other 50k?

Tether has its transparency page with official information and reports.
https://tether.to/en/transparency/?tab=reports

Here is their latest report.
https://assets.ctfassets.net/vyse88cgwfbl/7nQYtcoP9GxIUFSyro2dGK/8d0521470b9e99c8c0831019cabea4ee/ISAE_3000R_-_Opinion_Tether_International_Financial_Figure_30-09-2026.pdf

Their report and price used for it at $83,621/ BTC shows that they don't have 150k BTC as of publishing time of the report.

The “Bitcoin” category comprises Bitcoins held on-chain in wallets controlled by the Company valued using a BTC price of US$ 83,621.23/Bitcoin closing price as published by Bloomberg on 30 September 2026.

In the [6] category for other investments, you can see they have $6,004,074,506.

The “Other Investments” category comprises other investments within the Reserves that do not meet any of the criteria set
out in the other categories

This figure represents an increase of 50,000 coins from Tether's latest reserve report because these additional bitcoins are considered company investments, not part of the reserves backing USDT.

[X-ray]

I think that, following the cases of MtGox, Celsius, FTX, no one is willing to blindly trust any executive who stands on a stage and offer verbal guarantees, expecting everyone to simply take their word for it.

I remember the Terra UST, Luna foundation and Do Kwon, et. al's collapse. The start of the action at that time was they've reportedly buying BTC as part of their reserve. And they have aimed to hold tons of it. But when it's seen not to be sustainable and the value of their UST stable coin starts to depeg and drop, they've sold their massive holdings. So, I think that it won't be the same as this, we can't say that Tether is too big to fail, right? With genuine information they are publicizing, it has to be an outright info rather than a publicity stunt.

LUNA falling down not because they held Bitcoin in fact they buy Bitcoin because their stablecoin is already on a death spiral.

The UST is backed by LUNA through algorithm and LUNA is backed by pure demand.

They are only buying Bitcoin after they figured out that algorithmic design is flawed and attributing the downfall to Bitcoin is just so wrong.

In a hypothetical scenario, if in 2022 a stablecoin is backed by Bitcoin reserve fully collateralized equal to the dollar worth, the reserve would actually double in USD value by now.

But in reality, most stablecoin don't allocate majority of its reserve in volatile crypto asset, most of them put majority of share in bonds.

[GreatArkansas]

but anything that has to do with their accountability and transparency with the investment they have in Bitcoin is left to be their own internal issue which I expect them to deal with.

Actually when any company claim to hold one of world’s largest corporate Bitcoin reserve. And only evidence provided is a speech delivered on stage. Then it ceases to be merely an internal matter. Especially when that company is leading stablecoin in crypto market. If those additional 50k coin actually exist. And if they are leveraged or held within some opaque structure then any trouble that arise will have negative impact on all of us.

I am not saying that every of their private investment must be disclosed to everyone.
I just want them not to view minimal due diligence as mere PR exercise.
We have seen before how such movie ends.

I agree, especially with Tether's history on reserve FUD. Even if the extra 50k is company investment and not backing USDT, saying it on stage with no wallet addresses is still weak.
Funny part is people will still keep using USDT anyway (can't blame them; USDT is the only stablecoin that is somehow reputable, as it has too much trading volume and market cap).

[pooya87]

Wait... why should they even hold bitcoin?

Last I checked Tether aka USDT was a stablecoin that claims it has a swap rate of 1:1 with the US dollar (not with bitcoin). And it was supposed to be backed by US dollar. That means they should be bag-holding this shitfiat as the thing that backs their centralized stablecoin to be able to keep that ratio correct and be able to fulfill their obligation meaning if every single person who bagholds Tether wanted to get their fiat out, the company has to be able to pay them the fiat they are owed.

[Aliciaworld]

.
Do you guys actually care where the coins sit as long as USDT is backed? And with BTC dropping, is having bitcoin in the reserves even a good idea?

A Bitcoin reserve will always be a good idea since BTC is the dollar of the crypto economy, there will always be a good future with Bitcoin since it's rose and fall affects all other altcoins. It is important to all that Bitcoin dominance continues, this is therefore the reason behind the confidence that market makers and long term investors have.

[tbct_mt2]

Funny part is people will still keep using USDT anyway (can't blame them; USDT is the only stablecoin that is somehow reputable, as it has too much trading volume and market cap).

USDT is a best stablecoin because it is an old stable coin with long history while research and report show that Tether stable coin USDT is strongest against depeg.

This report has information to support your statement and belief in Tether stablecoin USDT.
Stable coins: a deep dive into valuation and depegging.

There are tables and charts here from that report summary, you can have more with above link. They show that USDT is the best stablecoin with smallest price fluctuation so it has smallest depeg risk.

https://www.spglobal.com/content/dam/spglobal/corporate/en/images/special-editorial/stablecoins-a-deep-dive-into-valuation-and-depegging/fig1.png
https://www.spglobal.com/content/dam/spglobal/corporate/en/images/general/special-editorial/fig-6.png
https://www.spglobal.com/content/dam/spglobal/corporate/en/images/general/special-editorial/fig-7.2.png

[Antidote47k]

The discrepancy in the reserve report and the statement may not really contradict each other if the additional 50k is held as a corporate investment rather than as part of USDT’s reserves. What I do wonder now that they separated the holdings is how verifiable the additional bitcoin holdings are? The reserve attestation gives us info about the asset backing USDT at that time but we don’t really get a complete picture of Tethers wider financial position.

For a company as influential as Tether in the crypto market there is need to understand more than the quantity of bitcoin it claims to own, wether the asserts are directly owned by Tether or held through another entity, whether the assets are pledged as collateral or subject to other claims and mostly important independently verifiable.
I believe transparency should extend beyond the assets directly backing USDT and not just simply the distinction between reserve backing and corporate investments.

[tabas]

I remember the Terra UST, Luna foundation and Do Kwon, et. al's collapse. The start of the action at that time was they've reportedly buying BTC as part of their reserve. And they have aimed to hold tons of it. But when it's seen not to be sustainable and the value of their UST stable coin starts to depeg and drop, they've sold their massive holdings. So, I think that it won't be the same as this, we can't say that Tether is too big to fail, right? With genuine information they are publicizing, it has to be an outright info rather than a publicity stunt.

This is literally not what happened, so stop spreading false information. Buying Bitcoin correctly is and always will be sustainable, you need to learn to think in detail and not make false generalizations about everything and everyone who is richer than you. The collapse of UST had nothing to do with their Bitcoin buying, and it is not relevant to USDT at all. Just because some things use the same word identifier such as stablecoin, that does not mean you can compare them directly as if they were the same thing.

What I probably missed at that time is what xray have said, I stand to be corrected and the report of their probable collapse was already happening even before buying btc. And they thought that they can hide the real score of their foundation by buying bitcoin. But even so, it didn't hide what's the real situation of the project. Although the collapse really has something to do with their buying of BTC to stay behind its shadow, and that's just a show when they're already falling. But if there's some gap in the report from the actual one, why the inaccuracy.

LUNA falling down not because they held Bitcoin in fact they buy Bitcoin because their stablecoin is already on a death spiral.

The UST is backed by LUNA through algorithm and LUNA is backed by pure demand.

They are only buying Bitcoin after they figured out that algorithmic design is flawed and attributing the downfall to Bitcoin is just so wrong.

In a hypothetical scenario, if in 2022 a stablecoin is backed by Bitcoin reserve fully collateralized equal to the dollar worth, the reserve would actually double in USD value by now.

But in reality, most stablecoin don't allocate majority of its reserve in volatile crypto asset, most of them put majority of share in bonds.

You're right, this is what I've missed. They thought that by buying bitcoin will save the foundation and its project, UST, luna but it didn't and it's too late to make it as a patch to what's already been broken.

[buwaytress]

If you're new to this, just know that Tether has never had a proper audit of their reserves. Their version is called "attestation" and I think they did it every half year or so. And these are simply: "take our word for it, we have enough reserves, and they're good against out liabilities".

Not even done by a "Big Four" just some auditing firm. I read somewhere KPMG did do one for them last year or in 2024? People probably don't remember any longer how badly they measure up to proper reserve audits.