Tether is exposed for a $20 billion financing plan, which may set a record for the highest first-round financing amount and valuation in history

Author: Zhou, ChainCatcher

On September 24, Bloomberg reported that Tether is currently in early negotiations with potential investors, planning to raise $15 billion to $20 billion through a private placement in exchange for approximately 3% equity. Cantor Fitzgerald is reportedly serving as the chief advisor for this transaction, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

The report also stated that this move could push Tether's valuation to around $500 billion, placing it among the world's most valuable private companies, alongside tech giants like OpenAI and SpaceX. Currently, Tether's most direct competitor, Circle, has a public market capitalization of only about $30 billion, while the valuation of another crypto giant, Binance, is estimated by several media outlets, including Bloomberg and Fortune, to be a maximum of $300 billion.

Since Tether has not previously engaged in public financing, this also means that Tether's first round of financing sets records globally in terms of both amount and valuation. Previously, these two records belonged to the AI company Thinking Machines Lab, which completed a $2 billion financing round this year at a valuation of $10 billion.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino later posted on X, stating that the company is evaluating financing from a group of high-profile key investors to maximize its strategic scale in existing and new business lines (stablecoins, distribution channels, AI, commodity trading, energy, communications, media).

Fundamentally, according to Coingecko data, the current circulating market capitalization of USDT is approximately $172.875 billion, accounting for over 57% of the total stablecoin market size of about $300 billion.

Former Binance/Bybit employee Crypto Ex-Insider believes that the $500 billion target makes Tether more like a shadow central bank, and the new capital of $20 billion marks its expansion from settlement to strategic layout, which may signify that stablecoins are challenging sovereign influence.

The confidence supporting this fundraising is Tether's profitability. According to official disclosures, it achieved a net profit of $4.9 billion in Q2 2025, with a profit margin as high as 99%. Crypto trader AT_XQ stated that Tether's fundraising is akin to "putting another printing press on the printing machine." He pointed out that Tether's $4.9 billion profit last quarter mainly came from U.S. Treasury bonds and Bitcoin holdings; if the financing materializes, it will enhance USDT liquidity and possibly drive the next wave of increases, but the risk of regulatory intervention remains.

In terms of reserves and asset structure, Tether's reserve assets include over $127 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds, about 100,000 Bitcoins, over $20 billion in equities, and $7 billion in excess reserve buffers.

In addition to its core stablecoin business, Tether has expanded into broader financial infrastructure, including investments of $500 million in Bitcoin mining, AI, and renewable energy projects, as well as supporting cross-border payments, DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) payroll distributions, and the Web3 ecosystem.

According to RootData, Tether has significantly accelerated its external investment pace since May 2024, with a total of 27 investments. At the same time, Tether has launched several new businesses, including the asset tokenization platform Hadron and the stablecoin Layer1 Stable. Combined with this massive financing, it clearly demonstrates Tether's enormous ambition to build a crypto empire.

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