Is Tether Really the 11th Biggest Bitcoin Holder? CryptoQuant Chips In

In a series of posts on the newly rebranded X platform, analysts at CryptoQuant went into great detail, trying to debunk the magnitude of Tether’s BTC ownership.

In its latest quarterly report, Tether, which issues the USDT stablecoin, claimed to have about $1.6 billion worth of BTC in its vaults, effectively pushing it up to 11th on the Bitcoin holders list.
Crypto researcher and data analyst Tom Wan then shared details of a Bitcoin address he believed belonged to Tether, which held approximately 55,000 BTC, a number commensurate with the market value of Tether’s claim.

1/ .@Tether_to BTC balance increased by $176M compared to last q

– Using the price as of 30 Jun, it is estimated that they hold ~55,022 BTC

– Last Q, I mentioned the below address could belong to Tether:bc1qjasf9z3h7w3jspkhtgatgpyvvzgpa2wwd2lr0eh5tx44reyn2k7sfc27a4 pic.twitter.com/90DGmqQvLS

— Tom Wan (@tomwanhh) August 4, 2023

However, according to CryptoQuant, if the wallet Wan identified belongs to Tether, it does not match the company’s quarterly report description.
On-chain data shows the wallet had no BTC holdings in Q4 2022 but started accumulating the cryptocurrency shortly after.

1-3/ Can we verify @Tether_to being the 11th largest #Bitcoin holder with the on-chain data?

4-6/ What is the blind spot of on-chain data when monitoring #Whales‘ behavior?

Let’s BUST this week’s FUDs with our on-chain data.

Thread🧵

— CryptoQuant.com (@cryptoquant_com) August 10, 2023

The on-chain data provider argued claims of Tether being the 11th largest BTC holder could be off the mark as there is every probability the stablecoin issuer has other BTC wallets apart from the one identified by Wan.
The company asked analysts to make greater use of on-chain data to verify claims and remove any doubts about crypto ownership.
Its main argument is that many on-chain analysts tend to label every wallet with more than 1,000 BTC as whales while overlooking their “individual characteristics,” including labels that could classify them as internal wallets.