USDT stablecoin issuer Tether has expanded its Bitcoin holdings by buying 7,629 BTC valued at roughly $705 million, in keeping with on-chain knowledge from Arkham Intelligence.
The acquisition elevates Tether’s Bitcoin holdings to 82,983 BTC, price 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 Might 2023.
Since then, the agency has constantly expanded its Bitcoin holdings each quarter as a part of efforts to diversify its reserves, which embody 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 property like US treasuries, which is a cornerstone of Tether’s income technique.
François additionally famous that this requirement might hamper Tether’s capacity to make use of its income to bolster its reserves and cut back the reliance on conventional monetary methods.
Moreover, regulatory consultants 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 issues is perhaps overstated, as buying and selling platforms can listing these property with out direct issuer solicitation. He said:
“USDt just isn’t the one stablecoin which isn’t provided to the general public within the Union. There’s a number of different stablecoins on the market the issuers of which is not going to have to be authorised underneath MiCA – simply because somebody just isn’t authorised in step with a particular regulation doesn’t make them non-compliant with that regulation.”
In the meantime, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has urged the neighborhood 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.”