Tether(, the issuer of USDT, was not idle in the fourth quarter of last year. It acquired nearly 10,000 bitcoins in one go. According to on-chain data tracking, they bought a total of 9,850 BTC, amounting to approximately $876 million.

Specifically, the actions took place in two waves. On November 7th, they withdrew 961 BTC from Bitfinex, worth about $97.18 million, and transferred this asset to their BTC reserve address. By New Year's Day 2026, they took action again—single withdrawal of 8,888.8 BTC, totaling as much as $778 million, also into the reserve address.

This series of measures was not a spur-of-the-moment decision. As early as May 2023, Tether publicly announced a long-term plan: to allocate 15% of the company's profits annually to purchase Bitcoin. From that time until now, this stablecoin giant has been steadily executing this strategy, increasing BTC reserves with real money.