Tether Holdings, issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin, is seeking to raise as much as $20 billion in a private funding round that would value the company at roughly $500 billion, according to a report.
The El Salvador-based firm is negotiating with investors to sell a 3% equity stake, a move that would place Tether among the highest-valued private companies globally, Bloomberg reported.
Tether’s USDT token underpins much of global crypto trading, serving as a dollar-pegged asset used for liquidity and settlement. The company has previously drawn criticism over transparency in its reserves, though in recent years it has emphasized its shift into short-term US Treasuries and independent attestation reports.
A $500 billion valuation would represent a leap far beyond publicly traded peers such as Coinbase, which carries a market cap closer to $50 billion, underscoring Tether’s profitability — estimated at more than $13 billion in net income in 2024, according to analyst projections.
The timing of the potential raise coincides with heightened regulatory focus: US and European authorities have pushed for tighter oversight of stablecoins, with some proposals treating them as systemic payment instruments.
Tether, earlier this month, announced that it would be launching a US-based stablecoin called USAT with former White House crypto official Bo Hines as CEO.
The timing of the raise comes as Tether’s role in global markets is expanding beyond crypto. A recent Blockworks report noted the firm was the seventh-largest net buyer of US Treasurys in Q2 2025, with $8 billion in incremental purchases, making it a “quasi-sovereign allocator” in dollar funding markets.
At the same time, the US Treasury has opened a public comment period under the GENIUS Act, the first major US legislation focused on payment stablecoins, seeking feedback on consumer protections and illicit finance risks.