With a profit margin of 99%, what is the secret behind Tether's $15 billion earnings this year?

Deng Tong, Jinse Finance

Recently, Nate Geraci, President of The ETF Store, posted on X: "While U.S. politicians are fiercely debating whether stablecoins should be allowed to pay interest... just a reminder: Tether will rake in $15 billion in profits this year, with a profit margin as high as 99%."

What acquisitions and investments has this giant made recently? How does it manage to pocket a 99% profit margin?

1. Perfecting the Cryptocurrency Business Landscape

1. Creating Fiat-Pegged Tokens

On December 9 (UTC+8), Tether's stablecoin USDT was officially recognized as a "fiat-pegged token" at the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), allowing licensed institutions to provide regulated custody and trading services. This marks a significant step forward for the UAE in stablecoin regulation. USDT has been officially recognized as a fiat reference token on multiple blockchains, including Aptos, Cosmos, and Near. This move helps Tether open the door to the compliant digital asset market in the Middle East, leveraging Abu Dhabi's status as a regional financial center to further expand the global influence and circulation of its stablecoin in compliant markets.

2. Mobile Payments

On December 9 (UTC+8), Oobit, a mobile payment app supported by Tether, announced its official launch in the U.S. in partnership with Bakkt. This "tap-to-pay" solution integrates non-custodial wallets such as Base, Binance, MetaMusk, Phantom, and Trust Wallet, allowing users to spend cryptocurrencies directly via iOS and Android devices. Merchants receive fiat settlements in real time through the existing Visa payment network. Tether's collaboration with Oobit began as early as last year. In 2024, Oobit completed a $25 million Series A funding round led by Tether, with participation from Solana co-founders and other investors. This funding is a key support for Oobit's subsequent technology upgrades and global market expansion.

In October 2025 (UTC+8), Tether announced its investment in Kotani Pay, an Africa-based crypto payment company, aiming to provide infrastructure that connects Web3 applications with local African payment channels. This will help African users access digital assets more easily, lower the threshold for financial participation, and promote financial inclusion and blockchain finance development in Africa. 

3. Digital Asset Lending

On November 18 (UTC+8), Tether announced a strategic investment in the digital asset lending platform Ledn. This move aims to expand credit access channels, supporting individuals and businesses to obtain loans without selling their digital assets. Ledn specializes in bitcoin-collateralized loans and has issued over $2.8 billion in loans since its inception, with lending in 2025 exceeding $1 billion, marking its strongest annual performance. Its annual recurring revenue (ARR) has surpassed $100 million.

On November 15 (UTC+8), Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated in an interview that Tether has provided about $1.5 billion in credit support to commodity traders, with financing in the form of cash and its USDT stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar. Tether is currently focusing on traditional commodity trading sectors such as agricultural products and oil, and plans to further expand its business exposure in this field.

4. Exchanges

On August 7 (UTC+8), Tether, through its Tether Ventures arm, led a €30 million funding round for Spanish crypto exchange Bit2Me, acquiring a minority stake. Bit2Me has been authorized by the Spanish securities regulator, becoming the first Spanish-language fintech company to obtain an EU MiCA license. It plans to use this funding to expand its presence in the Latin American market, with a focus on Argentina.

5. Blockchain Forensics

In July (UTC+8), Tether announced a strategic investment in blockchain forensics company Crystal Intelligence to combat cryptocurrency crime, with the specific investment amount undisclosed. This investment enables Tether to directly use Crystal's suite of real-time risk monitoring, fraud detection, and regulatory intelligence tools, enhancing its ability to help global law enforcement track suspicious activities. As crypto-related scams and fraud increase, Tether is committed to curbing the illegal use of its USDT stablecoin. This move will also help Tether further promote cryptocurrency compliance. Previously, Tether assisted 255 law enforcement agencies in 55 jurisdictions to freeze over $2.7 billion in criminal-related stablecoins.

2. Mining

1. Uruguay

Tether initially announced in May 2023 (UTC+8) the launch of a "sustainable bitcoin mining business" in Uruguay, aiming to use the country's renewable energy for mining. On November 28 (UTC+8), a Tether spokesperson confirmed that due to rising energy costs, Tether had suspended its bitcoin mining operations in Uruguay but remained committed to long-term projects in Latin America. Tether officially notified Uruguay's Ministry of Labor, suspended mining activities, and laid off 30 employees. Tether had originally planned to invest $500 million in mining operations in Uruguay.

2. Paraguay

In November 2023 (UTC+8), Tether announced plans to build a bitcoin mining farm in Paraguay, with a planned capacity of 40-70 megawatts. Paraguay's core advantage is its low electricity costs, which account for about 80% of total mining costs, and low electricity prices can significantly reduce operating costs. The mining farm was subsequently successfully launched and became one of Tether's key mining nodes in South America.

3. El Salvador

In June 2023 (UTC+8), Tether officially announced its participation in El Salvador's large-scale renewable energy project "Volcano Energy," investing $1 billion. The project is located in the small village of El Chiste in Metapán, Santa Ana Province, and plans to build a 241-megawatt renewable energy park, including 169 megawatts of photovoltaic solar energy and 72 megawatts of wind energy. In addition to funding, Tether also provides professional technical support in energy, hardware, and communications. After the project is put into operation, the initial computing power will exceed 1.3 exahashes/second, and upon completion, the mining farm's cumulative bitcoin mining hash rate will rank among the world's top 20 mining pools.

4. Brazil

In September 2024 (UTC+8), Tether partnered with South American agricultural company Adecoagro. Tether invested $100 million to acquire a 9.8% stake in Adecoagro; on April 30, 2025 (UTC+8), Tether further acquired a 70% stake in Adecoagro. After the acquisition, Adecoagro's board underwent significant changes. On July 3, 2025 (UTC+8), the two parties officially signed a memorandum of cooperation, finalizing a pilot project for bitcoin mining powered by renewable energy.

5. Bitdeer

In May 2024 (UTC+8), Tether made its first investment in Bitdeer, acquiring about 18.6 million shares of the company for $100 million through Tether International, and also obtained the option to purchase 5 million shares at $10 per share. From February 26 to March 13, 2025 (UTC+8), Tether further acquired $18.2 million worth of Bitdeer Series A shares. After this increase, Tether, through its two affiliated companies, holds nearly 32 million shares of Bitdeer, accounting for 21.4% of its outstanding shares, including 26.7 million shares purchased for over $138.7 million and nearly 5.2 million share warrants. This investment is also an important move for Tether to strengthen its influence in the field of sustainable bitcoin mining.

3. AI and Cutting-Edge Technology

1. Robotics

On December 8 (UTC+8), news emerged that Tether is supporting the development of a new type of industrial humanoid robot, which will undertake dangerous and physically demanding tasks in factories and logistics centers. Together with AMD Ventures, the Italian government-backed AI fund, and other investors, Tether participated in a €70 million financing round for Generative Bionics, a new spin-off from the Italian Institute of Technology.

The "physical AI" humanoid robots will operate in human-built environments, handling heavy lifting, transportation, and repetitive tasks that traditional robotic arms struggle to perform. For Tether, this investment is part of what CEO Paolo Ardoino describes as a "shift to supporting digital and physical infrastructure." These projects aim to expand the company's business scope beyond stablecoins and reduce what he calls "the growing reliance on centralized systems regulated by big tech companies."

On November 16 (UTC+8), the company behind Tether considered investing $1.16 billion in Germany's rapidly growing robotics company Neura Robotics. Neura Robotics is dedicated to developing humanoid robots. Neura's valuation ranges from $9.29 billion to $11.6 billion.

2. Large Language Models

On December 2 (UTC+8), Tether Data announced the launch of the large language model framework QVAC Fabric, enabling users to run, train, and personalize large language models directly on everyday hardware, including consumer GPUs, laptops, and even smartphones. Tasks that previously required high-end cloud servers or dedicated NVIDIA systems can now be accomplished on users' existing devices. The model reportedly supports training on various GPUs, including AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, Apple Silicon, and mobile chips.

A major breakthrough in this release is the ability to fine-tune models on mobile GPUs such as Qualcomm Adreno and ARM Mali. This is the first production-ready framework that supports modern LLM training on smartphone-grade hardware. This opens the door to personalized AI, allowing AI to learn directly from user devices, thus protecting user privacy and functioning even without an internet connection, providing strong support for a new generation of highly resilient, robust on-device AI applications.

On October 24 (UTC+8), QVAC, the AI research division of Tether Data, released the synthetic dataset QVAC Genesis I for training STEM-focused AI models. Tether Data also launched its first consumer application, QVAC Workbench, a comprehensive workspace showcasing the potential of AI on local devices. QVAC Workbench currently targets AI enthusiasts, advanced users, and researchers. It already supports various LLMs and other AI models, including Llama, Medgemma, Qwen, SmolVLM, Whisper, and more. The application is available for smartphones (currently Android, with iOS support coming in a few days) and desktop platforms (Windows, macOS, and Linux), offering the most comprehensive device support compared to existing products.

3. Brain-Computer Interfaces

In April 2024 (UTC+8), Tether invested $200 million in Blackrock Neurotech, completing a strategic investment and becoming the majority shareholder of the brain-computer interface company. The funds are mainly used to commercialize Blackrock Neurotech's innovative medical solutions, which have already been applied to more than 40 people, and to strengthen its R&D capabilities to maintain its leading position in the brain-computer interface field. In June 2025 (UTC+8), Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated that the brain-computer interface company invested by Tether is already ahead of Elon Musk's Neuralink in terms of technology.

4. Media Tools and Public Relations Image

1. Media Tools

In December 2024 (UTC+8), Rumble announced a final agreement for a $775 million strategic investment from Tether. Tether purchased 103,333,333 Class A common shares of Rumble at $7.50 per share, with $250 million earmarked for attracting creators, strategic acquisitions, and upgrading Rumble Cloud's technology infrastructure.

In October 2025 (UTC+8), two key moves in the partnership were revealed. First, Tether plans to launch a new stablecoin, USAT, targeting the U.S. market on the Rumble platform, expected to launch officially in December (UTC+8); second, it was announced that a bitcoin tipping feature for Rumble creators would go live, initially planned for early to mid-December (UTC+8). On November 24 (UTC+8), the Rumble CEO announced the official launch of Rumble Wallet, and the platform began testing BTC, XAUT, and USDT tipping features.

2. Public Relations Image

On October 23 (UTC+8), the White House released a list of donors for the White House Banquet Hall, with Tether included. For Tether, this donation is not merely a charitable act but a key move to strengthen its ties with the U.S. political sphere. Previously, the U.S. had passed the GENIUS regulatory bill for stablecoins, and the SEC had withdrawn several lawsuits against the crypto industry. Tether hopes to use such compliance moves to further consolidate its regulatory voice in the U.S. market and promote more policy support for its stablecoin business.

5. Physical Investments

1. Hoarding Gold

In September this year (UTC+8), Tether entered talks to invest in gold mining. Tether plans to invest across all segments of the gold supply chain, including mining, refining, trading, and royalty companies. Tether's gold reserves currently stand at 116 tons, valued at about $12.9 billion. This is equivalent to the gold reserves of central banks in countries like South Korea and Hungary, placing it in the mid-range of global sovereign reserves.

2. Acquisition of Italian Football Club Juventus

On December 12 (UTC+8), Tether announced plans to fully acquire the Italian football club Juventus FC. Tether submitted a binding all-cash offer to controlling shareholder Exor for its 65.4% stake and is prepared to launch a public tender offer for the remaining shares after the transaction, aiming for 100% ownership. Tether stated that if the deal succeeds, it will inject $1 billion into the club. CEO Paolo Ardoino emphasized that as a lifelong Juventus fan, he hopes to provide the team with long-term stable capital support through Tether's strong financial strength. "Tether's financial position is robust, and it plans to support Juventus with stable funding and a long-term vision." Tether currently holds more than 10% of Juventus shares.

After the news was announced, Juventus fan token JUV surged 30% in a short period.

However, the EXOR Group subsequently rejected Tether's proposal to acquire Juventus shares, reiterating its intention not to sell its stake in Juventus.

Note: EXOR is a holding group controlled by the Agnelli family, whose association with Juventus dates back to 1923, having controlled the club for nearly a century. EXOR currently holds 65.4% of Juventus shares and is the absolute controlling party. In recent years, EXOR has led several capital increases for Juventus.

6. Conclusion

Tether has transformed from a simple stablecoin issuer into a vast investment empire spanning digital finance, cutting-edge technology, energy mining, media communications, and physical assets. Its ultra-high 99% profit margin stems not only from USDT's underlying advantage as the global cryptocurrency liquidity hub but also from its ever-expanding ambitions. Starting from stablecoin issuance, Tether is injecting capital into traditional technology fields, attempting to reshape the development landscape of both the crypto industry and traditional sectors.