Caught in a BTC stealth trader conspiracy theory? Unraveling Tether's Bitcoin strategy panorama
Words: Nancy, PANewsAt
the center stage of Bitcoin Conference 2025, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stood in front of an image of Goku and said, "Bitcoin is my Goku and our friend."
This may seem like an emotional expression, but it's actually the epitome of Tether's strategic core. As the issuer of USDT, the world's largest stablecoin, Tether is embedding itself into multiple levels of the Bitcoin ecosystem as a builder, from reserve asset allocation to mining business, from ecological investment to infrastructure construction, Tether is penetrating into the nerve center of the new global financial order.
Due to Tether's deep penetration in the Bitcoin system, its actions have also triggered more and more conspiracy theories and heated discussions overseas, questioning that it artificially pushes up the price of Bitcoin by continuously issuing USDT, building a "closed-loop bubble" that is backed by Bitcoin reserves, supported by gold, and USDT issuance.
Building a Bitcoin Reserve Strategy, Named the Only Big BuyerSince
May 2023, Tether has announced that it will regularly distribute up to 15% of its realized net operating profit to buy Bitcoin. Tether does not anticipate that current and future Bitcoin holdings in its reserves will not exceed the shareholder capital buffer and will further strengthen and diversify its reserves. As of the first quarter of 2025, Tether holds Bitcoin worth about $7.66 billion, a significant increase from the previous quarter.
The "Gold + Bitcoin" two-round reserve mechanism is a hedging combination of Tether's against sovereign fiat currency risks, and has brought substantial financial returns. Ardoino recently revealed that Tether currently holds more than 100,000 bitcoins and more than 50 tons of gold. In 2024 alone, Tether will have a net profit of $13.7 billion, of which investments in gold and bitcoin contribute about $5 billion in profits. Ardoino has said that they are not holding gold to challenge Bitcoin, but to challenge the centralized fiat currency system.
However, WhaleWire founder Jacob King pointed out that "relying on constant money printing and takeovers, Tether is the only big buyer in the entire Bitcoin market. It proves its legitimacy by printing USDT and driving up the price of Bitcoin before selling the excess, and buying USD and gold as reserves." He calls this model the "ultimate house of cards," where the system could become unbalanced if stablecoins face regulation or demand for Bitcoin dries up.
Tether's ambitions for Bitcoin go far beyond hoarding coins. In April this year, Tether, together with SoftBank and Cantor, jointly launched Twenty One Capital, a crypto investment joint venture, with the goal of building a global platform for the acquisition and management of bitcoin assets, with a total scale of $3 billion. This platform is seen in the industry as Tether's structural layout against MicroStrategy. In this joint venture transaction, Tether has a 42.8% stake and 51.7% of the voting rights in the joint venture, effectively owning the ownership. Cantor, on the other hand, owns a 5% stake in Tether, and its CEO, Brandon Lutnick, is the son of U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick.
"Jack Mallers (CEO of Twenty One Capital) has a close relationship with Tether, Bitfinex, and his other company, Strike, has long had a close relationship with Tether. They claim to have a lot of market demand, but the majority of their reserves of bitcoin come directly from Tether. It's an 'empty shell operation' in a larger-scale liquidity trick." Jacob King bluntly said on social media that if stablecoins are regulated by the United States in the future, it will be difficult for Tether to continue to inject water, and in recent months, Bitcoin spot ETFs have continued to see huge net outflows, indicating that institutions are rapidly retreating.