BDO Italia, an accounting firm, has released its latest attestation report for Tether, the stablecoin issuer, revealing that approximately $1.5 billion of Tether’s reserves, or 2% of the total, are held in Bitcoin at the end of the first quarter. This marks the first time Bitcoin has been listed as a line item in the report.
The report also showed that Tether holds around $3.4 billion worth of precious metals, which were given their own line item, making up approximately 4% of the total reserves.
In a statement, Tether emphasized its commitment to transparency, saying that it included information about its Bitcoin and precious metals holdings to provide increased transparency to holders of the USDT stablecoin.
The company also announced that it made $1.48 billion in profits over the first quarter and increased the circulation of its token by 20%, pushing its total reserves to an all-time high of approximately $81.8 billion.
Tether’s growth may be attributed, in part, to the decline of its largest competitor, Circle’s USD Coin (USDC).
In March, USDC briefly depegged into the secondary market due to concerns about its exposure to the failed Silicon Valley Bank, and its market cap has been declining ever since.
