Reports Suggest 11th-Largest Bitcoin Wallet Belongs to Stablecoin Giant Tether

A 21.co research analyst has disclosed that Tether, the company behind the world’s most prominent stablecoin by market capitalization, could potentially hold the 11th-largest bitcoin (BTC) address. Additionally, an individual familiar with the matter has verified to The Block that said address does indeed belong to Tether.

Research Analyst and Unknown Source Link $1.6 Billion BTC Address to Stablecoin Firm

Lately, Tether’s attestation reports have sparked discussions within the crypto community regarding the firm’s earnings and bitcoin (BTC) holdings. The Q1 2023 Assurance Report for Tether indicated that it possessed bitcoin reserves amounting to $1.5 billion.

BDO prepared the most recent attestation, which demonstrated an $850 million increase in Tether’s reserves in Q2 2023. On August 3, 2023, Tom Wan, a research analyst at 21.co, posted on social media platform X that he believed a specific address was associated with Tether.

Crypto journalist Yogita Khatri reported after the social media post that “a source with direct knowledge of the matter confirmed to The Block that Tether is the 11th-largest bitcoin holder.” According to the BTC rich list, the address “bc1qj” possesses a balance of 55,022.19 BTC, equivalent to $1.6 billion at current exchange rates.

Though Tether has neither refuted nor affirmed ownership of this BTC address, onchain data reveals numerous bitcoin transfers originating from Bitfinex, as per Arkham Intelligence data.

Blockchain explorers characterize the address connected with the purported Tether bitcoin wallet “1Kr6Q” as one owned by Bitfinex. Ifinex owns both Bitfinex and Tether. The blockchain explorer OXT displays an annotation from June 14, 2020, that reads: “This is a Bitfinex hot wallet which is still in use today.”

In May 2023, Tether declared that it would allocate 15% of its profits towards bitcoin. Bitfinex also manages the bitcoin address “bc1qg,” the world’s second-largest wallet, containing 178,010.08 BTC.

What do you think about the speculation and reports that say the 11th-largest bitcoin wallet belongs to Tether? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.