11-04-2026 
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TL;DR: Tether nearly doubled its equity to just under $8 billion in Q3 2026 on BTC gains, but Ardoino’s claim of ~150,000 BTC exceeds the attestation by ~50,000, and GENIUS-compliant reserves fell to 72.9%. Former CEO Jean-Louis van der Velde topped the Dutch Quote 500 with a net worth of €26 billion (US$29 billion).
Key Takeaways:
- Tether’s equity rose from $4.1 billion to just under $8 billion in Q3 2026, led by $8.37 billion in BTC.
- Where’s the extra BTC? Ardoino claims ~150,000 BTC, about 50,000 more than the attestation shows.
- Tether’s share of ‘compliant’ reserves keeps shrinking, to 72.9% under the GENIUS Act from 77.2% a year ago.
- Tether’s former CEO named richest Dutchman, by a wide margin: van der Velde leads the Quote 500 at €26 billion (US$29 billion).
Tether nearly doubled its ‘equity’ in the third quarter of 2026, largely on the strength of its BTC token treasury, and the company claims it’s not even counting the other BTC it has stashed away somewhere secret.
The latest ‘attestation’ of the reserve assets backing Tether’s $183.5 billion in circulating USDT stablecoins shows an ‘equity’ figure of just under $8 billion, meaning Tether’s total assets stand at nearly $191.5 billion. That equity figure was just $4.1 billion at the end of Q2, when the amount of circulating USDT was a nearly identical $183.6 billion.
Tether reported a $1.66 billion ‘financial result’ (i.e., profit) in Q3, a significant turnaround from the nearly $3.2 billion loss in Q2.
Looking at Tether’s reserves, the biggest change in dollar terms was its BTC holdings, which were worth $8.37 billion at the end of Q3, up nearly $2.6 billion from Q2’s BTC total. That gain reflects the BTC’s fiat price surge from below $59,000 on June 30 to ~$83,500 on September 30.
BTC has since slipped back below $78,000 following last week’s $6.3 billion hack of the Binance exchange, and further dips could be in store depending on how many more incidents might be in the pipeline. There’s also uncertainty over how token prices will fare once Tuesday’s U.S. midterm election results are in, so Tether’s equity could see a Q4 dip should the news cycle not cooperate.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino made waves last week during a speech at the Plan B Forum in Lugano, Switzerland, when he offhandedly mentioned that Tether holds “give or take 150,000 Bitcoin.” That would be give or take 50,000 more BTC than Tether cites in its reserve attestation.
Ardoino may be counting the tens of thousands of BTC tokens currently held by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) following the 2022 arrest of two individuals linked to the infamous 2016 hack of the Bitfinex exchange, a company under the same corporate umbrella as Tether. (Ardoino is also Bitfinex’s chief technology officer.)
In January 2025, the DoJ suggested it would return 94,643 BTC to Bitfinex, although little has been said on the matter since. However, the DoJ recently began transferring significant quantities of its Bitfinex BTC to unlabeled digital wallets without informing the public as to the point of the exercise. Could this be the source of some of Tether’s excess BTC holdings?
During President Trump’s second term, Tether has drawn ever closer to the U.S. government, with Ardoino in attendance and even getting a shout-out from the president at the White House when Trump signed the stablecoin-focused GENIUS Act into law in July 2025. Ardoino has also routinely trumpeted Tether’s significant purchases of U.S. Treasury bills (more on this below) as akin to doing the U.S. a solid by helping to prop up the dollar, so is the U.S. now returning the favor?
Missing: one golden calf
Tether’s Q3 attestation shows total T-bill holdings of $122.8 billion, around $7.8 billion higher than Q2’s figure. However, that gain was offset by Q3’s holdings of overnight reverse repurchase agreements falling by nearly one-half to $9.5 billion.
Cash also continues to shrink, falling from $40 million to $20 million, but the zigs and zags had little impact on the overall cash & cash equivalents & other short-term deposits total of $139.6 billion (only $1 billion below Q2’s stat).
Tether’s vaults of physical gold bricks reported total holdings of $19.1 billion in Q3, about $250 million higher than Q2. However, given that the price of gold rose 3.7% over the period in question, it appears that Tether got rid of ~3.4 tons of gold at some point during Q3.
Tether’s public equity holdings grew 11% to nearly $4.2 billion, and the mystery meat category known as ‘other investments’ shot up around $750 million to $6 billion.
Also growing is Tether’s always controversial collection of ‘secured loans’ to parties unknown (some more unknown than others), which increased by ~$750 million to nearly $14.2 billion. Hard to believe it’s been nearly four years since Tether vowed to eliminate these loans from its balance sheet, back when they totaled a mere $6 billion.
Meanwhile, the share of Tether’s reserve assets that would be deemed acceptable under GENIUS stood at 72.9% as of Q3, down two points from Q2 and down from 77.2% in the same period last year.
The shrinkage is additional confirmation that Tether has no plan to make USDT GENIUS-compliant, instead allocating that role to the much smaller USAT (market cap: $179 million) issued by Tether’s U.S.-facing business (run by former White House ‘crypto council’ director Bo Hines, who helped USDT secure a three-year window in which to continue doing business in the U.S.).
Van der Velde tops Dutch rich list
The dynamic duo behind Tether’s founding, Giancarlo Devasini and Jean-Louis van der Velde, are notoriously publicity shy, and even less enthused about publicly discussing their enormous wealth. The duo’s respective shares of ownership in Tether are a constantly shifting beast, with former CEO van der Velde reportedly holding a 55% stake in Tether Holdings in 2016 before his name ‘disappeared’ from public documents listing ownership interests.
Regardless, last month brought the latest installment of the Quote 500, an annual list of the richest people in the Netherlands, which ranked van der Velde as the new #1 individual with an estimated net worth of €26 billion (US$29 billion). That’s twice the value held by Heineken heiress Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken.
Quote claims it based its estimate of van der Velde’s fortune on his estimated 15-20% share in Tether. Quote chose the lower end of that range to arrive at the €26 billion figure, and the magazine said that is a ‘conservative’ estimate.
What’s all the more remarkable is that this is the 62-year-old van der Velde’s first appearance on this list. Quote said it had been aware of van der Velde’s deep pockets for a long time, but it’s taken this long to establish that he still retained Dutch citizenship. As Quote itself put it, “we do not know if he is happy with his top position, because besides being very rich, he is also very difficult to find.”
Van der Velde is worth significantly less than Devasini, whose worth was estimated at over $89 billion by Forbes earlier this year (Bloomberg put it slightly lower at $54 billion). Forbes also estimated Ardoino’s net worth at $38 billion.
FAQs:
How much equity does Tether have?
Just under $8 billion in Q3 2026, nearly double Q2’s $4.1 billion.
How much Bitcoin does Tether own?
The Q3 attestation lists $8.37 billion in BTC. Ardoino said Tether holds “give or take 150,000 Bitcoin,” about 50,000 more than the attestation shows.
How much of Tether’s reserves are GENIUS-compliant?
72.9% as of Q3 2026, down two points from Q2 and down from 77.2% a year earlier.
What is USAT?
A GENIUS-compliant stablecoin from Tether’s U.S. business, run by Bo Hines. Its market cap is about $179 million, far below USDT.
Who is Jean-Louis van der Velde?
Tether’s former CEO, now #1 on the Netherlands’ Quote 500 with an estimated €26 billion (US$29 billion), based on a 15-20% Tether stake.
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