Paolo Ardoino, the CEO of Tether, said on X(Twitter) on Sunday that the company did not sell any Bitcoin to buy gold. The post came after a YouTuber raised questions about Tether’s Q1 and Q2 2025 attestation data.
The data showed a fall from 92,650 BTC in Q1 to 83,274 BTC in Q2. Ardoino said the coins were transferred to another project and that Tether plans to keep putting profits into Bitcoin, gold and land.
Transfer, not sell
The claim began when Clive Thompson pointed to the attestation numbers and suggested Tether had cut its Bitcoin position. The idea gained attention online. Jan3 CEO Samson Mow pushed back.
He noted that Tether moved 19,800 BTC to Twenty One Capital, or XXI, in the same period. That included 14,000 BTC in June and 5,800 BTC in July.
Mow said the transfers explain the lower Q2 figure, and he added that if the transfer is counted, Tether would have had 4,624 BTC more than at the end of Q1.
Ardoino repeated the same point. He said the firm moved assets to support XXI. He wrote that Tether moved Bitcoin, not sold it.
Why the move to XXI?
XXI is described as a Bitcoin-native financial platform, and it is led by Jack Mallers, the chief executive of Strike. Tether moved over 37,000 BTC in early June across many transactions to back the project. At the time, that flow of coins was worth about $3.9 billion.
The transfers show a strategy to link Bitcoin to other public or private efforts. Some people in the market see such moves as a way to build steady demand for tokens or related products.
Ardoino said the company will keep investing parts of its profit into safe assets. He mentioned Bitcoin, gold and land by name.
Talks about gold
Reports also say Tether has opened talks about putting money into the gold supply chain. The discussions reportedly cover refining, trading and royalty deals with mining groups.
Tether has a history of buying physical gold and offering related products. Company leaders say moving profits into gold or mining would be another way to turn stablecoin fees into tangible assets.
A source close to the matter said the company is looking at several parts of the gold market. That includes refining and trading, and it could also mean deals where Tether gets royalties from mines.
The plan would not be a quick swap of Bitcoin for gold. Rather, it would be a long-term way to spread holdings across real-world assets.
Leadership moves
Tether also named a new leader for its U.S. work, and the company hired a former White House crypto adviser, Hines, who left the Trump administration on Aug. 9 after less than seven months.
Hines took a private sector role and chose Tether for his next job. The hire shows Tether is building its team in the United States while it expands its asset strategy.
What this means?
If the transfers are treated as internal moves, then Tether kept its Bitcoin exposure or even grew it. The transfers to XXI do not show a sell-off on public markets.
But parts of the holdings remain locked or tied to projects. That limits how much can be turned into cash right away.
For critics, the episode raises questions about how attestations are read and how moves between related entities are disclosed. For supporters, it shows a firm shifting profits into assets it sees as safe.
Tether’s leadership says the firm moved Bitcoin to support a new Bitcoin platform and has no plan to dump coins for gold. The company also appears to be exploring ways to invest in the gold industry.
At the same time, it is expanding its U.S. team. Investors and observers will watch what Tether does next with its locked tokens and with any new deals in gold or mining.