MicroStrategy's Purchase is Confirmed
• The Buy: MicroStrategy (now known as Strategy) announced today, Monday, December 8, 2025, that they purchased an additional 10,624 Bitcoin for approximately $962.7 million.
• The Funding Source: Crucially, MicroStrategy's official SEC filings (8-K) state that these purchases were funded by the proceeds from the issuance and sale of their company stock (specifically, Class A common stock, MSTR, and perpetual preferred stock, STRD).
MicroStrategy's typical process is to raise fiat currency (USD) by selling stock/bonds, and then using that USD to purchase Bitcoin through established brokers and exchanges. They do not generally interact directly with Tether's Treasury for USDT minting.
Tether's Minting is Confirmed
• The Mint: Tether minted 1 billion USDT on the Ethereum network, which was also reported today, Monday, December 8, 2025.
• The Reason: Tether's official stance for large mints is to replenish exchange inventories to meet anticipated demand.
The most probable scenario is:
MicroStrategy wired its $963 million in fiat USD (from its stock sales) to a major cryptocurrency exchange or a prime broker to execute the massive Bitcoin purchase.
That exchange or broker, knowing it needed to acquire a massive amount of BTC liquidity, either:
• Executed the trade in fiat/BTC.
• Or, more likely, requested a large stablecoin mint from Tether to be able to facilitate the trade quickly across various venues.
Tether minted the $1 billion USDT to keep enough stablecoin available to handle this and other large market orders.
In short, MicroStrategy's massive Bitcoin purchase was the catalyst for the Tether mint, but the minted USDT was likely received by the exchange or broker who facilitated the trade, not MicroStrategy itself.
