As well as declaring this year that it will allocate 15% of it's profits into buying more bitcoin (and holding it in self custody)...
Tether has just announced it will invest $500m in building it's own Bitcoin mining sites in Uruguay, Paraguay and El Salvador. It plans to grow it's computing power to 1% of the Bitcoin mining network.


Tether to Invest $500M in Bitcoin Mining : Report

Excerpt

Stablecoin issuer Tether plans to invest half a billion dollars in building its own Bitcoin mining facilities and other miners across the world.
Stablecoin issuer Tether plans to invest half a billion dollars in building its own Bitcoin mining facilities and other miners across the world.
Photo by Dmytro Demidko on Unsplash
Posted November 17, 2023 at 12:11 am EST.
Tether, the company behind the USDT stablecoin, is ramping up its efforts in the Bitcoin mining industry.
In an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday, Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino said the company plans to invest $500 million in building its own Bitcoin mining facilities and investing in other miners across the world.
Tether plans to build Bitcoin mining sites in Uruguay, Paraguay and El Salvador, in line with its plans to grow its computing power to 1% of the Bitcoin mining network. These facilities would have a capacity between 40 and 70 megawatts.
“Mining for us is something that we have to learn and grow over time. We are not in a rush to become the biggest miner in the world,” said Ardoino, who will assume his role as CEO of Tether in December.
In a post on X, he noted that the company was close to adding “another extremely powerful piece of the puzzle” to the Tether ecosystem.
We're quite close to add another extremely powerful piece of the puzzle for @Tether_to ecosystem.
Total of 5 mind-blowing projects (and counting) for 2024.
Couple of these could obliterate some popular Web2 centralized services for good.
Pure Real World Ecosystem aka "Things…
— Paolo Ardoino 🍐 (@paoloardoino) November 12, 2023
Earlier this year, the firm also declared it would allocate up to 15% of its profits to growing its stash of Bitcoin, which it plans to hold in a self-custodial wallet. Tether also reported Q1 net profit of $1.48 billion this year, with Bitcoin making up 2% of its existing reserves.
Tether still retains its status as the issuer of the largest stablecoin in digital asset markets, with USDT boasting a market capitalization of $87.5 billion.
I know over the years there have been many exposes on Tether for not being full reserve and their various lies and shenanigans. Those claims have always seemed to be pretty damning to me, but the history of the world is full of pirates becoming admirals, and this seems increasingly like a realistic outcome.
Is there any systematic writeup or podcast or anything who talks about Tether's place in the larger ecosystem? It seems like they've got a lot of irons in the fire but I've lost track of what they all are.
I'm also increasingly curious if Tether will turn out to be the US govt's best frenemy -- all the 3rd world countries with imploding currencies getting hungry for USDT keeps the petrodollar music playing a while longer...
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This post from swan isn't systematic but it's zoomed out far enough that it made me appreciate their significance.
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Tether's investment in bitcoin mining seems like a good move, even though I'm not sure what their intentions are. The role of Tether as an issuer of USDT is more controversial. For now, it plays an important role in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, but I hope it will eventually be unnecessary.
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Are they the Fed's play to bridge Fiat -Treasuries- Energy - BTC?
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This move shows again that tether and other related stablecoins are the most brilliant invention of the financial world. It is pretty much a hedge fund investing other people's money but they keep all the profit and only give back exactly what people deposited, best business in the world
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