Do not place all eggs in one basket. In just two days this April, Stablecoin Giant has partnered with Bitfinex, SoftBank and Cantor Fitzgerald to launch Twenty One Capital, a public company focused on Bitcoin, increasing ownership of Italian football club Juventus by more than 10%.
These announcements are just the latest steps in Tether’s aggressive push to diversify beyond flagship USDT Stablecoin. This strategy could prove important as regulatory pressures spread across key markets.
USDT
Tether launched USDT Stablecoin in 2014. Soon it became the largest Stablecoin issuer, and USDT grew into one of the five largest cryptocurrencies of market capitalization.
At one point, USDT was a lead token in terms of trading volume. At various times, I was responsible for 50%-80% of all Bitcoin transactions.
Furthermore, USDT plays a key role in cryptocurrency onboarding, as many crypto exchanges do not have a pair from Fiat to crypto to crypto conflict. USDT is a USD alternative and provides predictable trading equipment tailored to USD values.
Companies also use USDT, which is backed by the US Treasury bill, to make cross-border payments. The tether holds most of them. Last year, Tether purchased US Treasury securities worth $33.1 billion. This has made it the seventh largest foreign net buyer, surpassing Mexico, Canada, Taiwan and many other countries.
Tether was the US Treasury’s seventh largest buyer in 2024.
-Paolo Ardoino🤖 (@paoloardoino) March 20, 2025
read more: El Salvador ends Bitcoin as fiat currency – this is why it didn’t work
Tether overseas
Tether, originally registered in the British Isles, moved its headquarters to El Salvador as of January. This was the first country to adopt Bitcoin as its fiat currency. Shortly after Tether moved to El Salvador, the local parliament killed Bitcoin’s status as legal currency.
Additionally, USDT remains a viable payment instrument for areas with low debit card penetration or approved jurisdictions. In Africa, USDT has a dual purpose. It serves as a savings asset and as a remittance vehicle. Countries like Russia and Iran use USDT along with other cryptocurrencies in foreign trade to dodge sanctions.
Still, Tether’s Stablecoin is undergoing legal crash testing in real time. For example, they refused to follow the cryptocurrency law market, which regulates the European Union’s cryptocurrency law by removing USDT from Coinbase, Kraken, Binance and Crypto.com for EU customers.
Additionally, new cryptographic regulations in the US could lead to a ban on USDT (President Trump’s cryptocurrency company, World Liberty Financial, will be selling its own Stablecoin).
To mediate this issue, Tether is considering new stubcoins in line with new regulations.
Legal scrutiny
Last year, US investigators alleged that Tether had participated in money laundering and sanctions violations. CEO Paolo Ardoino denied these accusations.
“At Tether, we regularly and directly deal with law enforcement officials, helping prevent fraudulent states, terrorists and criminals from misusing USDT,” Ardoino wrote in October. “We know if the article is being investigated as it was incorrectly claimed, and based on that we can confirm that the article’s allegations are clearly false.”
See below.
At Tether we deal with law enforcement officials regularly and directly to help prevent fraudulent states, terrorists and criminals from misusing USDT. I know if the article is being investigated as it incorrectly claimed. Based on that, we have a claim of…
– Paul Addino Y (@Paolo Laid) October 25, 2024
Losing a market like the EU or the US would have severely damaged the tether. However, the company offers far more than USDT, so diversifying its business could mitigate these challenges.
Other ventures
In addition to Stablecoins, Tether counts Bitcoin mining between its segments. For example, the company owns 21% of Bitdeer, owns a Crypto mine mine in Uruguay, and has participated in an effort to build a $1 billion Bitcoin mining farm in El Salvador, known as “volcanic energy.”
The main plans to expand the Bitcoin mining venture were announced in 2023 when it outlined a $500 million investment in Bitcoin mining, including the construction of companies in three countries, Northern Data AG and mining facilities. Tether holds a 20% stake in Northern Data after purchasing 10,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs, a popular chip among AI developers. These chips are available for rental from AI startups. As of April, it is not clear whether the company followed the plan or went a different path.
Tether also has an interest in artificial intelligence, resulting in a $200 million strategic investment in the brain computer interface BlackRock Neurotech. The company is one of the world’s neurocraft leaders, and Tether has become its majority stakeholder.
Tether has invested $775 million in Rumble, a video platform known for its far-right audience, and has invested Backs Fizen, Backs Fizen, in a payment service and an independent wallet company. I also started HolePunch. This helps you develop software without the need for a server.
Other projects Ardoino spoke on social media that he has not yet properly implemented include an African tokenization platform and a power kiosk with educational materials on cryptocurrency.
So, even if USDT faces bans in multiple jurisdictions, Tether is not a one-trick pony, but critics warn that Tether is using its client funds to make these hefty investments.
According to Forbes, Aldoino sees: “It’s good to have resilient money, but if you only have resilient money and everything else is centralized, you can destroy it right away.
read more: Tether revenues are close to $1.5 billion as Ethereum is below $200 million
