Tether could postpone its fundraising to 500 billion

Tether, the issuer of the world's largest stablecoin, is playing a risky card. The company is trying to complete a historic fundraising at a valuation of $500 billion, but time is running out. Investors have two weeks to commit. After this deadline, the project could simply be postponed.

An XXL valuation that makes Wall Street hesitate

According to The Information, Tether, the company behind USDT, has given potential investors two weeks to confirm their participation in its private funding round. If the commitments do not allow the targeted amounts to be reached, the company could simply postpone the operation.

The ambition displayed is immense. Tether would target a valuation of $500 billion as part of a raising of between $15 and $20 billion, carried out via a private placement, with Cantor Fitzgerald as advisor.

At this level, the group would overtake Bank of America, valued at around $352 billion, and would place itself just behind JPMorgan Chase, whose capitalization is around $794 billion. Such an operation would propel the USDT issuer into the very restricted circle of the world's largest financial powers.

On the ground, however, the enthusiasm is not total. According to several sources cited by The Information, some investors consider this valuation too ambitious. Because even if USDT remains the largest stablecoin on the market with a capitalization of around $184 billion, crossing the $500 billion milestone requires much more than simple domination of the sector.

This requires strong confidence in Tether's ability to continue its growth, diversify its activities and maintain sufficient transparency on the quality of its reserves.

Transparency and ambitions, Tether plays a new card

This is not the first time that Tether has mentioned fundraising. In September 2024, Bloomberg already revealed that the company was exploring this avenue, planning to raise between 15 and 20 billion via a private placement representing around 3% of the capital.

CEO Paolo Ardoino then confirmed the intention for X, citing expansion in sectors as varied as artificial intelligence, energy, raw materials and even media.

However, last February, Ardoino had partially revised its communication. Questioned by Cointelegraph, he described the figures of 20 billion as “simple assumptions”, while maintaining the valuation of 500 billion, which he readily compared to the profits of OpenAI. Today, the pressure seems very real, and the tone has clearly changed.

At the same time, Tether is trying to clear up its most criticized gray areas. According to the Financial Times, KPMG was commissioned to carry out the first comprehensive audit of its financial statements, a first in the company's history.

PwC also supports it in setting up its internal systems. Until now, Tether was satisfied with certificates signed by BDO Italia, far from an exhaustive audit covering assets, liabilities and internal controls.

This approach is not trivial, in a context where stablecoins concentrate 75% of the total crypto trading volume and where USDT retains around 68% of exchange volumes. Gaining the trust of major institutions necessarily requires greater transparency.

Tether is playing a risky card. A tight deadline, an XXL valuation, an uncertain market. If the operation fails, it will be a strong signal of distrust towards the stablecoin giant. If it succeeds, Tether shifts into another dimension, that of systemic financial institutions. The next two weeks will say a lot about the future of the sector.