According to @lookonchain, Tether withdrew 8,889 BTC (about $778.7M) from Bitfinex to its reserve address roughly 5 hours ago, indicating a sizable exchange outflow tied to reserve management (source: @lookonchain on X, Jan 1, 2026). According to @lookonchain and the Arkham Intelligence entity explorer, Tether’s total on-chain BTC holdings now stand at 96,370 BTC (about $8.46B), with the holding address data corroborated on Arkham (source: @lookonchain; Arkham Intelligence).

According to @Excellion, reports that Tether sold BTC for gold are false, with the headline decline in holdings explained by off-balance transfers to XXI rather than sales (source: @Excellion). According to @Excellion citing BDO assurance data, Tether’s reported BTC holdings moved from 92,650 BTC as of March 31, 2025 (Q1) to 83,274 BTC as of June 30, 2025 (Q2) (source: @Excellion). According to @Excellion, Tether funded XXI with a total of 19,800 BTC, including 14,000 BTC on June 2, 2025 and 5,800 BTC in July 2025, which were not reflected as on-hand BTC in the Q2 snapshot (source: @Excellion). According to @Excellion, adjusting for the June transfer implies Tether would have had 4,624 BTC more at Q2-end than at Q1-end, and including the July transfer implies at least a net increase of 10,424 BTC, contradicting the gold-sale narrative (source: @Excellion). According to @Excellion, this positioning indicates Tether remains bullish on BTC, which he characterizes as supportive rather than bearish for Bitcoin market structure (source: @Excellion).