The CEO of Tether, Paolo Ardoino, denied recent rumors that the stablecoin issuer discharges his Bitcoin holders to buy gold.
In a Sunday article on X, Ardoino said that the company “sold no bitcoin” and had reaffirmed its profile allocation strategy to assets like “Bitcoin, Gold and Land”.
The comments came in response to the speculation of Youtuber Clive Thompson, who cited the certificate data from Tether Q1 and Q2 2025 from BDO to affirm that the company had reduced its Bitcoin (BTC) position. Thompson underlined a drop of 92,650 BTC in the first quarter to 83,274 BTC in the second quarter as proof of a sale.
However, Jan3 CEO, Samson Mow, untied the complaint, noting that Tether had transferred 19,800 BTC to a separate initiative called Twenty One Capital (XXI) during the same period. This included 14,000 BTC sent in June and 5,800 other BTC in July.
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Tether exceeds $ 3.9 billion in BTC in XXI
In early June, Tether moved more than 37,000 BTCs, worth around 3.9 billion dollars, in many transactions to support XXI, a Bitcoin native financial platform led by the CEO of Strike Jack Mallers.
“Tether would have had 4,624 BTC more than at the end of the first quarter if the transfer was taken into account,” said Mow, adding that the company actually increased its net assets.
Ardoino echoes the explanation, saying that bitcoin was moved, not sold. “While the world continues to become darker, Tether will continue to invest part of its profits in safe assets,” he wrote.
TETHER, the transmitter of the Stablecoin USDT (USDT), has more than 100,521 BTC, worth around 11.17 billion dollars, according to BitcoinTareries.net data.
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El Salvador buys $ 50 million gold
Tether’s Bitcoin’s Bitcoin sales rumors came while El Salvador revealed that he added 13,999 Troy golden ounces worth 50 million dollars to his foreign reserves, marking its first gold acquisition since 1990. The Central Bank said that this decision was part of a diversification strategy to reduce the American dollar.
Before turning to gold, El Salvador built a Bitcoin reserve of $ 700 million, holding 6,292 BTC. However, an international monetary fund report in July said that the country of Central America had not made new Bitcoin purchases since February.
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