Finance · Profile from Finance Research Companion
Tether
The issuer of USDT, the largest stablecoin in the world, a dollar token used mainly as the cash leg of offshore crypto trading and as a store of dollars for people in high-inflation economies, which grew from a 2014 experiment linked to the Bitfinex exchange into a firm that reported more than $13bn of net profit in 2024 and more than $10bn in 2025 with a staff of a few hundred, by holding customers' dollars in US Treasury bills and keeping the interest. For most of its life Tether was defined by doubts about its reserves: it lost US correspondent banking in 2017, lost ~$850m held by a Panamanian payment processor in 2018–19, told the New York Attorney General that USDT had at times been unbacked and paid $18.5m to settle in February 2021, and paid $41m to the CFTC in October 2021 for misstatements about full dollar backing. It never had a full audit. Yet USDT did not break through the 2022 crash, absorbing a ~$17bn net fall in supply, and by 2025 Tether held ~$122bn of Treasuries directly (~$141bn including indirect exposure), making it one of the largest holders of US government debt. After the GENIUS Act (signed 18 July 2025) it launched a separate US-regulated token, USAT, issued by Anchorage Digital Bank and led by former White House crypto adviser Bo Hines. USDT supply was ~$182.5bn (~61% of a ~$300bn market) on 25 October 2026.
At a glance
- Founded
- July 2014 as Realcoin (Brock Pierce, Reeve Collins, Craig Sellars); renamed Tether November 2014 (reported)
- Headquarters
- Historically Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands; relocated to El Salvador in 2025 (company)
- Ownership / structure
- Private. Tether Holdings Ltd (BVI) and Tether International; controlled by a small group shared historically with Bitfinex's owners, led by chairman Giancarlo Devasini (reported); Cantor Fitzgerald acquired a ~5% stake in 2024 (reported)
- Leadership
- Paolo Ardoino, CEO since December 2023 (previously CTO); Giancarlo Devasini, chairman; Bo Hines, CEO of Tether US / USAT (from September 2025)
- Segment and clients
- Stablecoin issuance (USDT, XAUt gold token, USAT), plus a growing investment portfolio (bitcoin mining, AI, agriculture, media, sports)
- Scale
- USDT ~$186.5bn at end-2025 (BDO attestation); ~$184bn at 30 September 2026 (attestation, reported); ~$182.5bn on 25 October 2026 (DefiLlama)
- Profit
- Net profit >$13bn (2024), >$10bn (2025); ~$4.5bn for the first nine months of 2026 (reported, verify)
- Reserves
- Excess reserves ~$6.3bn at end-2025; total assets ~$192.8bn incl. ~$17.4bn gold and ~$8.4bn bitcoin (attestation, reported)
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Realcoin launch and Bitfinex link (2014); banking struggles (2017–18); Crypto Capital loss and NYAG settlement (2019–21); CFTC settlement and reserve disclosure (2021–22); Terra and FTX redemption stress (2022); Treasury-bill pivot and record profits (2023–25); El Salvador move and investment empire (2025); GENIUS Act and USAT (2025–26)
8 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2014
Realcoin Launch and Bitfinex Link
Founding / launch
2017
Banking Struggles
Failure (loss of banking) / funding
2019
Crypto Capital Loss and NYAG Settlement
Failure (loss of funds at a payment processor) / regulatory settlement
2021
CFTC Settlement and Reserve Disclosure
Regulatory settlement / disclosure change
2022
Terra and FTX Redemption Stress
Liquidity test (mass redemptions)
2023
Treasury Bill Pivot and Record Profits
Balance-sheet strategy
2025
El Salvador Move and Investment Empire
Relocation / diversification / fundraising attempt
2025
GENIUS Act and USAT
Launch (US-regulated stablecoin) / regulatory strategy