Stablecoin issuer Tether has added 951 Bitcoin worth approximately $70.5 million to its dedicated reserve wallet, on-chain data from Arkham Intelligence shows. Tether transferred 4,557 BTC to a wallet address on April 15, 2026. With this transfer, the total Bitcoin holdings of the issuer of USDT increased to 97,141 BTC. The current equivalent of 97,141 BTC is $7.2 billion.
951 BTC Pulled From Bitfinex Into Cold Reserve Storage
On-chain analyst EmberCN flagged the movement first on X, reporting that Tether’s Bitcoin reserve address withdrew 951 BTC worth $70.47 million from the Bitfinex exchange. According to CEO Paolo Ardoino, the wallet address to which the coins were credited was Tether’s main Bitcoin reserve. Arkham Intelligence has valued the transaction at as much as $70.74 million, with the small difference attributed to the price of Bitcoin at the time.
Tether and Bitfinex share the same parent company, iFinex. The movement is therefore an internal transfer, coins shifting from the exchange’s hot wallet into Tether’s cold reserve address for long-term storage and accounting. This was actually the second Bitcoin movement to the reserve wallet in April; Tether had already moved four BTC on April 10, five days before the larger withdrawal.
With 97,141 BTC now in reserve, Tether’s wallet ranks as the fifth-largest Bitcoin address globally. Bitcoin.com News notes that if Tether were a publicly listed company, it would sit as the second-largest corporate Bitcoin holder in the world, behind only Strategy, the firm led by Michael Saylor.
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The 15% Profit Rule That Funds Every Purchase
After implementing its plan to accumulate Bitcoin in May 2023, Tether has been actively purchasing Bitcoin as per the guidelines of its plan. The plan does not block Tether from using these assets, except that 15% of net realized quarterly operating profits must be allocated to Bitcoin.
On-chain records show Tether typically routes accumulated Bitcoin through Bitfinex before consolidating it into its main reserve wallet near quarter-end. The April 15 transfer appears to be part of its Q1 2026 allocation. For context, Tether closed out Q4 2025 on January 1 with a single 8,888.8 BTC purchase worth roughly $778 million, confirmed by Ardoino directly via X. A similar 961 BTC mid-quarter top-up occurred on November 7, 2025, making this latest move consistent with that pattern.
The company reported over $10 billion in net profit for 2025. At that profit level, analysts estimate its quarterly Bitcoin budget runs well above $400 million. The 951 BTC transferred in April is therefore likely a mid-quarter top-up, not Tether’s full Q1 buy. More transfers could follow before the quarter closes.
Bitcoin Sits on Top of $141B in Treasuries and $17.4B in Gold
Tether’s Bitcoin does not back USDT on a one-to-one basis. The core backing for its $185 billion in circulating USDT remains in cash-equivalent instruments, primarily U.S. Treasuries, with reported exposure of up to $141 billion. Bitcoin and gold sit in a separate surplus reserve layer. Tether also holds $17.4 billion in gold. Together, these hard assets function as a buffer above and beyond USDT’s primary backing.
According to EmberCN, Tether has an unrealized Bitcoin gain of approximately $2.175 billion. As a reminder, Tether’s Bitcoin accumulation cost is approximately $51,312 per BTC. With Bitcoin trading close to $74,000 at the time of the transfer, that gain cushion adds significant resilience to Tether’s balance sheet.
Institutional Buyers Keep Accumulating as Bitcoin Rally To $75K
Tether is not buying alone. Strategy acquired 13,927 BTC on April 13 for approximately $1 billion, pushing its total stack to 780,897 BTC. The Winklevoss twins also added $42 million in Bitcoin the same week.
According to Bloomberg data, the ETFs invested in bitcoin experienced an inflow of $411 million on April 14, led by BlackRock’s IBIT with an inflow of $ 213.8 million. Additionally, there had been an outflow of $291 million the previous day. Weaker US data supported the bounce back in ETF flows. Information on inflation PPI and de-escalation U.S.-Iran tensions.
As of reporting date, despite these institutional activities, Bitcoin kept trading above $75,000. Tether has not been dissuaded by price weakness. The firm has not liquidated one single Bitcoin from its reserves according to on-chain data since the company began its accumulation in 2023. Furthermore, Tether has not set an upper limit on the program while analysts believe Tether will keep on buying quarterly at a similar rate through to the end of 2026.
