Tether has invested $20 million in Brazilian crypto platform Mercado Bitcoin to assist the corporate’s growth into tokenized property, stablecoin funds, lending and different blockchain-based monetary providers throughout Latin America.
Since its 2013 launch, Mercado Bitcoin has expanded past crypto buying and selling into regulated monetary providers, together with tokenized property, credit score, stablecoin funds and cross-border providers.
The corporate mentioned it has greater than 4.5 million customers, has issued greater than 2 billion Brazilian reais (about $370 million) value of tokenized property, and operates beneath almost a dozen licenses throughout Brazil and Europe, together with a cost establishment license from Brazil’s central financial institution.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino mentioned Mercado Bitcoin has constructed one among Latin America’s most complete regulated onchain monetary platforms, citing its licensing, tokenization infrastructure and built-in monetary providers.
In February, Mercado Bitcoin introduced it had deployed greater than $20 million in tokenized personal credit score, one section of its broader tokenization enterprise, on Bitcoin (BTC) sidechain Rootstock.
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Tether utilizing earnings for strategic investments
The Mercado Bitcoin funding aligns with Tether Investments’ technique of backing firms growing blockchain-based monetary infrastructure.
Tether points USDT (USDT), the world’s largest stablecoin, with about $184 billion in circulation. Within the first quarter of 2026, the corporate reported roughly $1.04 billion in web revenue, which it’s tapping for strategic investments.
In April, the agency participated in a $134 million funding spherical for Stablecoin Improvement Company, a NYSE American-traded firm targeted on increasing entry to the stablecoin economic system and digital asset infrastructure.
A month later, Tether invested in remittance platform LemFi to assist the mixing of USDT as a settlement layer for cross-border funds throughout Africa and Asia. The businesses mentioned the partnership would develop stablecoin-based cost infrastructure throughout key remittance corridors.
Later in Could, Tether introduced plans with the Authorities of Georgia to launch a stablecoin pegged to the Georgian lari beneath the nation’s digital asset framework.
Past stablecoin-related initiatives, Tether has additionally invested in sectors together with synthetic intelligence, power, biotechnology and digital media by means of its funding arm.
Regardless of hypothesis a few potential itemizing, CEO Paolo Ardoino has mentioned the corporate has no plans to go public.
Supply: DefiLlama
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