tether

#tether $tether

Recent secondary market transactions reveal that stablecoin giant Tether may now be valued as high as $375 billion, potentially vaulting its secretive owners into the highest ranks of the world’s richest.
Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin, is trading on secondary markets in a range of $350 billion to $375 billion, according to industry sources. Though this is below the $500 billion maximum target the company was seeking for its fundraise first reported by Bloomberg in September, the amount is still large enough to catapult its top executives into the top ranks among world billionaires.
Tether did not respond to Forbes’ request for comment by press time. SoftBank and Ark Invest have previously been mentioned as potential participants in Tether’s fundraise, but a source familiar with the matter told Forbes that SoftBank is not an investor in Tether. ETF manager Ark Invest, founded by Cathie Wood, did not respond to a request for comment.
Earlier reports suggested the El Salvador-based crypto juggernaut was initially seeking up to $20 billion for roughly 3% of the business, but its advisers later floated raising as little as $5 billion after encountering investor hesitation, according to the Financial Times.
For now, based on conversations with crypto investors and executives, Forbes is valuing Tether at roughly $200 billion—still far above the $50 billion estimate assigned to the company one year ago. That valuation would also create a windfall for Cantor Fitzgerald, putting its 5% stake at $10 billion, up from a reported $600 million in 2023.
Last year, CEO Paolo Ardoino said Tether was building its own artificial intelligence platform, alongside new data, energy and education divisions. It has also built sizable positions in commodities and crypto—about $23 billion in gold and $6.4 billion in bitcoin. Separately, Tether’s venture portfolio spans more than 120 companies and is worth over $10 billion, including a recent $200 million investment in internet marketplace Whop.com and a $775 million bet on video platform Rumble in 2024. Ardoino has also claimed his company has a 99% profit margin with a staff of about 300 employees.
But Tether is facing increasing competition in stablecoins. Besides Circle with its popular USDC stablecoin, Stripe and crypto venture firm Paradigm recently unveiled a new blockchain for stablecoin payments called Tempo, with partners that include UBS, Deutsche Bank, OpenAI and Anthropic. Meta, which spent years pursuing its own stablecoin project, Libra, is also plotting a return. CoinDesk reported its plans to support stablecoin-backed payments and implement a new wallet later this year.

#Tether $tether
PARIS, Feb 27 (Reuters) - El Salvador-based stablecoin issuer Tether said it has frozen about $4.2 billion of its crypto tokens over links to "illicit activity", mostly in the past three years, as authorities around the world try to crack down on crypto-related crime.
The world's largest stablecoin company, which has more than $180 billion of its dollar-pegged token in circulation, up from around $70 billion three years ago, is able to remotely freeze its tokens held in users' crypto wallets when asked to do so by law enforcement.
Tether said this week it had helped the U.S. Justice Department freeze nearly $61 million worth of its tokens, called USDT, which were linked to "pig-butchering", a form of fraud in which scammers form a personal relationship with their victims.
That brought its total frozen assets linked to illicit activity to $4.2 billion, of which $3.5 billion has been frozen since 2023, a spokesperson for Tether said in emailed comments late on Thursday.
Tether has also previously said it had blocked wallets linked to human trafficking, and "terrorism and warfare" in Israel and Ukraine. Sanctioned Russian crypto exchange Garantex said last year Tether had blocked funds on its platform.
Authorities around the world have long raised concerns about the role of crypto in illicit finance. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) last year called on countries to take stronger action to combat illicit finance in crypto markets, which are generally less regulated than mainstream financial markets.
Money launderers received at least $82 billion in cryptocurrencies last year, up sharply from just $10 billion in 2020, partly driven by growth among Chinese-speaking groups, blockchain researchers said in January.
Stablecoins are mostly used in crypto trading, and their volumes have surged in recent years.

Tether Investments has announced a strategic investment in Whop, the world’s largest internet marketplace for digital creators, as part of its effort to expand the real-world use of stablecoins across the global internet economy.

The partnership will integrate Tether’s USD-pegged stablecoins—including USD₮ and USA₮—directly into Whop’s platform, enabling millions of users to send and receive payments faster and at lower cost compared to traditional payment systems. This is particularly impactful in regions with limited banking access or expensive cross-border transactions.

As part of the collaboration, Whop will implement Tether’s Wallet Development Kit (WDK), giving creators and users self-custodial wallets with full control over their funds. The integration also supports seamless on-chain payments and lays the groundwork for future decentralized finance features such as lending and borrowing.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the investment aligns with the company’s strategy to embed stablecoins into everyday economic activity, improving financial inclusion and providing scalable financial infrastructure on digital platforms.

Currently, Whop serves over 18.4 million users worldwide, with creators collectively earning about $3 billion annually. The platform has seen strong growth, with gross transaction volume rising 25% month over month, highlighting the demand for efficient digital payment solutions.

Whop CEO Steven Schwartz emphasized that the partnership will accelerate the company’s mission to create a global internet marketplace where creators can earn and transact instantly, regardless of location or currency. The investment will also support Whop’s international expansion across Latin America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, while helping develop new financial infrastructure and AI-powered tools for online income opportunities.

With more than 530 million users across Tether’s ecosystem and over $180 billion in issued stablecoins, this collaboration is expected to strengthen stablecoin adoption and enable faster digital dollar payments for the rapidly growing global creator economy.

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#Tether has made a strategic investment in #whop a creator economy platform with 18.4M users, aiming to integrate its Wallet Development Kit and enable seamless $USDT payments across digital marketplaces.

Whop processes roughly $3B in annual payouts, and the partnership targets faster global settlements in LATAM, Europe, and APAC without traditional banking friction.

The integration is expected to embed stablecoin payments and DeFi tools directly into creator storefronts, positioning $USDT as infrastructure for internet native commerce as cross border demand grows.