USDT stablecoin issuer Tether has expanded its Bitcoin holdings by buying 7,629 BTC valued at roughly $705 million, in accordance with on-chain knowledge from Arkham Intelligence.
The acquisition elevates Tether’s Bitcoin holdings to 82,983 BTC, value roughly $7.68 billion as of press time. The agency now ranks because the sixth-largest Bitcoin holder globally, based mostly on Bitinfocharts knowledge.
The acquisition is a part of Tether’s technique to allocate 15% of its income to buying extra Bitcoin, a plan first introduced in Could 2023.
Since then, the agency has persistently expanded its Bitcoin holdings each quarter as a part of efforts to diversify its reserves, which embrace gold, money equivalents, and different short-term investments.
MiCA FUD
Tether’s newest acquisition comes as its flagship stablecoin, USDT, faces regulatory strain within the European Union.
These guidelines impose stringent necessities on stablecoin issuers, together with a controversial 30% reserve mandate in conventional monetary establishments.
Quinten François, co-founder of WeRate, argued that this requirement undermines operational effectivity by proscribing the pliability to generate revenue from belongings like US treasuries, which is a cornerstone of Tether’s income technique.
François additionally famous that this requirement may hamper Tether’s capacity to make use of its income to bolster its reserves and cut back the reliance on conventional monetary techniques.
Moreover, regulatory specialists like BCAS IO’s Jonathan Galea clarified that stablecoins like USDT, which aren’t actively marketed within the EU, could not require MiCA authorization.
Galea prompt that compliance considerations is perhaps overstated, as buying and selling platforms can checklist these belongings with out direct issuer solicitation. He said:
“USDt shouldn’t be the one stablecoin which isn’t supplied to the general public within the Union. There’s loads of different stablecoins on the market the issuers of which won’t must be authorised underneath MiCA – simply because somebody shouldn’t be authorised in step with a selected regulation doesn’t make them non-compliant with that regulation.”
In the meantime, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has urged the group to ignore the FUD surrounding the USDT digital asset, stating that:
“USDT is Protected… Opponents are simply determined to make you consider issues that don’t exist.”
