TETHER’S CEO SAYS “GIVE OR TAKE 150,000 BITCOIN” — ITS Q3 REPORT IMPLIES ABOUT 100,060 — NOBODY HAS SHOWN THE OTHER 50,000

CoinDesk reported on November 3, 2026 that Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s chief executive, told the Plan B Forum in Lugano, “We have give or take 150,000 bitcoin ourselves. It’s not much, but it’s honest work.” CoinDesk says he didn’t say where the extra coins sit. No address came with it, and no proof.

Here is what can be checked. Tether’s third-quarter report, attested by BDO, lists $8.37 billion of bitcoin at $83,621.23 a coin. CoinDesk works that out from the exact figures as about 100,060 bitcoin. The address that trackers tie to Tether, bc1qjasf9z3h7w3jspkhtgatgpyvvzgpa2wwd2lr0eh5tx44reyn2k7sfc27a4, holds 96,932.41 at block 974,385. Set 150,000 against those and about 50,000 bitcoin are claimed but not shown.

That doesn’t make the claim false. The report covers the reserves behind USDT, and CoinDesk notes that holdings outside them, such as Tether’s investments, wouldn’t appear in it. That may be the whole answer. Ardoino didn’t say it was. So a stablecoin issuer has told a conference it holds a large bitcoin position, and the size of that position rests on one sentence and a “give or take.”

Bitcoin is the one asset where this is cheap to settle. OKX publishes its addresses with a signed message reading “I am an OKX address,” and anyone can test it. CoinDesk says Tether stated in 2023 that it would hold its coins itself rather than use outside custodians. If so, it has the keys to sign the same message. Until it does, the checkable number is about 100,000, and the other 50,000 are a line from a stage. At the time of this writing, bitcoin was $77,507.