Tether is making moves that could reshape the entire crypto landscape. The stablecoin giant is reportedly seeking to raise up to $20 billion at a staggering $500 billion valuation - putting it on par with SpaceX and surpassing OpenAI's recent $300 billion round. This would represent one of the largest private funding deals in crypto history and signal institutional confidence in digital assets under Trump's pro-crypto administration.
The crypto world just got its biggest valuation bombshell yet. Tether, the company behind the dominant USDT stablecoin, is quietly shopping for one of the largest private funding rounds in tech history - seeking between $15 billion and $20 billion at a mind-bending $500 billion valuation, according to Bloomberg sources familiar with the matter.
The numbers are staggering even by Silicon Valley standards. At $500 billion, Tether would leapfrog into the same rarified air as Elon Musk's SpaceX and dwarf OpenAI's $300 billion fundraising round from earlier this year. The crypto company is offering roughly 3% of itself through a private placement - new equity, not existing investor sales.
What makes this particularly fascinating is the timing. Tether has been positioning itself for a major U.S. comeback under President Trump's crypto-friendly administration. The company recently named a CEO for its U.S. business and launched USAT, a new institutional-grade token regulated under the GENIUS Act. It's a dramatic pivot for a company once labeled a "criminal's go-to cryptocurrency" by regulators.
The valuation pitch becomes clearer when you look at Tether's market dominance. Its USDT stablecoin commands a $172 billion market cap - more than double Circle's USDC at $74 billion. In the stablecoin wars, Tether isn't just winning; it's lapping the competition. Every crypto transaction, from DeFi protocols to major exchanges, runs through USDT as the de facto dollar proxy.
But here's where it gets interesting for institutional investors. Sources close to the deal warn that talks are still early-stage, meaning the final terms could shift dramatically. That uncertainty is typical for mega-rounds of this size, where valuations often become negotiating starting points rather than final numbers.
The broader crypto market is watching this closely because it represents a fundamental shift in how traditional finance views digital assets. When a stablecoin issuer can command OpenAI-level valuations, it signals that institutional money sees crypto infrastructure as permanent rather than speculative.
