Stablecoin issuer Tether International will start allocating as much as 15% of its net realized operating profits in bitcoin (BTC) as the company believes this strategy will further "strengthen and diversify the reserves."
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In a blog post on Wednesday, Tether said the current and future BTC holdings would not exceed the Shareholder Capital Cushion. As of the end of March 2023, the USDT issuer held around $1.5 billion in BTC. The company said:
While it is common practice among many institutional investors to third-party custody their Bitcoin, Tether believes in the philosophy 'Not your keys, not your bitcoin' and takes possession of the private keys associated with all of its Bitcoin holdings."
Tether pointed out it won't put all of its profits into purchasing the cryptocurrency, saying the company will consider "only the tangible gains from its operations." Tether CTO, Paolo Ardoino, said the decision to invest in bitcoin is underpinned by its "strength and potential as an investment asset."
The move comes just a few days after Tether reported it had reduced its bank deposits from $5.3 billion to $481 million in Q1. The company cited the recent volatility in the banking industry as the reason behind the decision to reduce bank deposits. Tether also revealed it holds 4% of total reserves for gold and 1.8% for bitcoin.
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