Tether joins the likes of SpaceX, OpenAI with $500B valuation talk: Report

Key Takeaways

What is driving Tether’s current market position?

USDT supply hit $172 billion, backed by U.S. Treasuries and BTC, keeping Tether as the central liquidity anchor and a top BTC treasury holder.

What could the $20B private placement mean?

The raise could supercharge Tether’s balance sheet and ramp up BTC treasury accumulation, amplifying its market influence.

As Q3 wraps, Tether’s [USDT] balance sheet shows a clear uptick. 

Total issuance hit $172 billion, up $15 billion QoQ, keeping USDT at 56% of the stablecoin market. That meant even as the overall market tops $300 billion+, Tether still stayed the central liquidity anchor.

Broadly speaking, USDT demand continues to stay strong across industries.

Reinforcing this trend, CEO Paolo Ardoino says the firm is now exploring “selective” investor funding to scale operations and support growth.

“Tether is evaluating a raise from a selected group of high-profile key investors, to maximize the scale of the Company’s strategy across all existing and new business lines (stablecoins, distribution ubiquity, AI, commodity trading, energy, communications, media) by several orders of magnitude.”

In short, Tether is exploring capital raises to expand its balance sheet.

Bloomberg reported the company was targeting $15–20 billion through a private placement for a 3% stake, implying a $500 billion post-money valuation

At that level, Tether would sit alongside OpenAI and SpaceX as one of the few private firms valued near half a trillion dollars.

But what does this raise actually mean for the broader crypto market?

Tether’s USDT backed by strong reserve base

Tether’s Q2 reserve report highlighted its capital backing. 

Notably, its $172 billion USDT supply was supported by $162 billion in assets, including $127 billion in the U.S. Treasuries (81.2%) and over 100,000 Bitcoin (5.49%), totaling roughly 87% of Tether’s reserve base.

This structure helped Tether maintain its $1 peg, facilitate large transactions and generate income.

Also, the firm reported $4.9 billion profit in Q2 2025, with Ardoino claiming margins near 99%.

That profit model supported Tether’s stablecoin dominance with a $172 billion market cap, far ahead of Circle’s [USDC] $74 billion.

A leading Bitcoin treasury holder

Source: BitcoinTreasuries

Backing this trend, Tether has emerged as a top Bitcoin [BTC] treasury holder. 

Its reserves now total 100,521 BTC, ranking sixth globally, with nearly 16.7k BTC added in 2025 alone, outpacing all three major BTC ETFs combined: Bitwise [BITW], Ark Invest [ARKB], and WisdomTree [BTCW].

Against this backdrop, a $20 billion private placement would give Tether significant firepower to expand its balance sheet. This could enhance liquidity across crypto markets, boosting its BTC treasury accumulation.