Cathie Wood, SoftBank Circle Tether in $20B Raise at Half-Trillion Value
Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, is in early talks to raise as much as $20 billion from investors including SoftBank and Cathie Wood’s Ark Investment Management, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The round, which would value the company at around $500 billion, could make El Salvador-based Tether one of the world’s most valuable privately held firms, in the same league as OpenAI and SpaceX. It would also represent the stablecoin giant’s biggest push yet for outside capital.
The discussions involve selling a roughly 3% stake, with Cantor Fitzgerald acting as lead adviser, according to the report. One source cautioned the fundraising size could be lower as talks remain at an early stage. Tether did not respond to requests for comment.
SoftBank and Ark, both known for backing high-growth technology ventures, are said to be among a handful of high-profile investors weighing participation. Discussions are preliminary and no final decisions have been made, according to the report.
Cantor Fitzgerald, the Wall Street investment bank that already holds a stake in Tether, is advising on the potential deal.
The talks come just days after Bloomberg reported that Tether was seeking to tap investors for the multibillion-dollar raise. If completed, the round would rank among the largest private financings in crypto history, underscoring the influence of a company whose dollar-pegged USDT tokens dominate the $173 billion stablecoin market.
Tether’s corporate structure remains opaque. The company is domiciled in El Salvador and has long been a lightning rod for criticism over the transparency of its reserves, even as USDT has become the most widely used digital dollar in crypto trading and payments. The firm recently disclosed that it was holding more than $90 billion in U.S. Treasuries, cementing its role as one of the world’s biggest non-sovereign buyers of American debt.
Despite the fundraising chatter, executives have publicly played down the prospect of bringing in new equity. Bo Hines, chief executive of Tether’s newly established U.S. division, said at a conference in Seoul this week that the company “has no plans to raise money.”
The conflicting signals highlight a common tactic in high-stakes financings, where companies and advisors float potential terms in order to test market appetite. “Companies, investors, and advisors will often leak information about potential deals in order to signal interest or gauge market reaction,” Bloomberg noted.
Tether already has links to some of the names mentioned in the talks. Together with SoftBank and Cantor Fitzgerald, the company co-founded Twenty One Capital, a bitcoin treasury vehicle that launched with $3.6 billion in bitcoin on its balance sheet, briefly making it the third-largest corporate holder of the cryptocurrency.
The stablecoin operator has also announced plans to launch a U.S.-focused version of its dollar token, a move that could put it on a collision course with Circle’s USDC and PayPal’s PYUSD. Regulators in Washington are watching closely: U.S. lawmakers have signaled they want tighter oversight of stablecoins given their growing role in payments and financial markets.
Tether has become one of the most profitable companies in the digital asset sector. It booked $4.9 billion in profit in the second quarter of 2025, bringing its year-to-date total to $5.7 billion, despite employing a relatively small workforce. By comparison, Goldman Sachs reported $2.4 billion in profit for the same quarter, underscoring how Tether’s reserves-driven model has allowed it to outperform some of Wall Street’s biggest names. Much of its profit comes from interest on its $120 billion-plus holdings in U.S. Treasuries and money market funds, as global rates remain elevated.
Even if a deal materializes at a $500 billion valuation, questions will linger over how investors and regulators assess the risks embedded in Tether’s model. The company has yet to undergo a full independent audit of its reserves, a longstanding demand from critics and policymakers alike.
For now, the prospect of heavyweight backers like SoftBank and Ark signals that Wall Street and Silicon Valley’s appetite for crypto infrastructure may not have cooled, despite market volatility and regulatory uncertainty.