Do not put all your eggs in a single basket – an idiom attachment apparently takes to heart. In just two days in April, the Stablecoin giant unveiled two major movements: teaming up with Bitfinex, SoftBank and Cantor Fitzgerald to launch a public company focused on Bitcoin, twenty-one capital and increase its participation in the Italian football club of Juventus to more than 10%.
These announcements only mark the latest stages of Tether’s aggressive thrust to diversify beyond its USDT flagship stable. This strategy could be critical as regulatory pressure supports on the main markets.
USDT
Tether launched the Stablecoin USDT in 2014. He quickly became the largest stablecoin transmitter, while the USDT has become one of the five largest cryptocurrencies in market capitalization.
At one point, the USDT was a leading token in terms of trading volume. At different times, it was responsible for 50% to 80% of all Bitcoin trades.
In addition, the USDT plays a vital role in the integration of cryptocurrency, because many crypto exchanges do not have Fiat-to-Crypto and Crypto-Fiat pairs. The USDT is a USD substitute, providing a foreseeable trading instrument aligned with the USD value.
Companies also run cross -border payments using the USDT, which is supported by invoices for the US Treasury. And Tether holds most of them. Last year, Tether bought $ 33.1 billion from the titles of the US Treasury. He made the company the seventh largest foreign net buyer, exceeding Mexico, Canada, Taiwan and many other countries.
Foreign attachment
Initially recorded in the British islands, Tether, in January, moved its headquarters to El Salvador – the first country to adopt Bitcoin as a legal call. Shortly after Tether moved to Salvador, the local congress killed Bitcoin status as a call for tenders.
In addition, the USDT remains a viable payment instrument for regions with low penetration of debit cards or for sanctioned jurisdictions. In Africa, the USDT has a double objective: it serves as an asset for savings and the transfer instrument. Countries like Russia and Iran use the USDT, alongside other cryptocurrencies, in foreign trade to dodge sanctions.
However, Tether’s Stablecoin is experiencing legal collision tests in real time. For example, the refusal to follow the markets of the cryptographic asset law regulating the crypto in the European Union has led to the abolition of the USDT of Coinbase, Kraken, Binance and Crypto.com for EU customers.
In addition, the emerging regulations of cryptography in the United States can lead to a ban on the USDT (Crypto-Monitory Société by President Trump, World Liberty Financial, plans to sell his own stablecoin).
To mediate this problem, Tether is considering a new stablecoin that would line up with new regulations.
Legal control
Last year, the American investigator alleged that Tether had participated in money laundering and the violation of sanctions. The CEO, Paolo Ardoino, denies these accusations.
“At Tether, we treat regularly and directly with law enforcement to help prevent nations, terrorists and abusive USDT criminals,” wrote Ardoino in October. “We would know if we are investigated like the article wrongly. With that, depending on this, we can confirm that the allegations of the article are unequivocal false. ”
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The loss of markets like the EU and the United States would have seriously damaged the attachment. However, the company has much more to offer than the USDT, so that the diversification of companies can subscribe these challenges.
Other companies
In addition to stablecoins, Tether counts the exploitation of Bitcoin among his segments. For example, the company holds 21% Bitdeer, Mines Crypto in Uruguay and has joined an effort to build a Bitcoin mining of $ 1 billion in El Salvador called “Volcano Energy”.
The main widening plans for Bitcoin mining companies were announced in 2023 when the attachment stressed that it was going to invest $ 500 million in the operation of Bitcoin, including a company, Northern Data AG and build mining facilities in three countries. TETHER has a 20% stake in Northern Data after buying 10,000 NVIDIA H100 GPU, popular chips among AI developers. These chips are rented to AI startups. In April, it is not clear if the company followed this plan or took a different path.
Tether also has interests for artificial intelligence, which led to a strategic investment of $ 200 million in Blackrock Neurotech Blackrock Neurotech. The company is one of the neuro-procart leaders in the world, and Tether has become its majority of stakeholders.
Tether has invested $ 775 million in Rumble, a video platform known for its far-right audience, and supports Fizen, a payment and self-care portfolio company. He also launched Holepunch, who helps develop software without the need for servers.
Other projects spoken by Ardoino on social networks which have not yet been adequately introduced include a tokenization platform and power kiosks in Africa with educational material on cryptocurrency.
Thus, even if the USDT faces a ban in several jurisdictions, Tether is not a pony in a turn, although criticism warns that the use by Tether of customers’ funds to make these high investments could end badly.
Ardoino, according to Forbes, sees it in this way: “It is good to have resilient money, but if you only have resilient money and everything else is centralized, it can be destroyed quickly. One of our currencies is building for the apocalypse ”. “
