Well, it seems the rumor mill was churning again in the crypto world this week. Tether’s CEO, Paolo Ardoino, felt the need to step in and set the record straight. He took to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, to directly address some chatter that had been making the rounds. The gist of it? He flatly denied that Tether had sold off any of its Bitcoin or, perhaps more interestingly, that it had converted its BTC into gold. He called those reports simply untrue.
The whole thing started after an analyst, Clive Thompson, dug into Tether’s publicly available audit reports. He noticed the company’s Bitcoin holdings appeared to be on a downward trend from one quarter to the next, which led him to suggest a possible pivot toward gold. It’s an easy conclusion to jump to, I suppose, given the current economic climate. But it looks like that story might have been missing some crucial context.
Where Did The Bitcoin Actually Go?
Another analyst, Samson Mow, jumped into the fray to provide that missing piece. He didn’t dispute the numbers themselves but clarified what they represented. According to the data Mow shared, Tether’s BTC holdings were indeed listed as 92,650 BTC at the end of the first quarter. By the end of Q2, that number was down to 83,274. On the surface, that looks like a sell-off.
But here’s the thing. Mow pointed out that during that exact same period, Tether had allocated a whopping 19,800 BTC to something called its ‘XXI initiative’. That’s a pretty significant movement of assets, but it’s not a sale. It’s more like moving money from one pocket to another within the same company.
The Numbers Tell a Different Story
When you do the math with that transfer in mind, the narrative completely flips. If you account for that 19,800 BTC being moved to XXI, Tether’s net Bitcoin position actually increased by over 4,600 coins by the end of the second quarter. Mow even noted that including a transfer in July, the net increase is more than 10,400 BTC. That doesn’t exactly sound like a company losing faith in Bitcoin, does it? Mow’s take was that people are often too quick to look for bad news, but all the indicators here suggest Tether is still massively bullish.
Ardoino confirmed this interpretation, backing up Mow’s analysis. He reiterated that the company had just shifted some assets internally. His comments then turned a bit broader, almost philosophical. He mentioned the world “becoming increasingly darker” as a reason for Tether’s continued strategy of parking its profits in what it sees as safe-haven assets—namely, Bitcoin, gold, and land investments. He ended by reinforcing the message that Tether aims to be a “safe company.” It’s a statement that feels designed to reassure, especially after a week of confusing headlines.
Of course, it’s always worth remembering that none of this is a recommendation on what to do with your own money. It’s just a look at what one of the biggest players in the space is doing, or in this case, what it’s *not* doing.
