The stablecoin company Tether is reportedly in talks with investors to raise between $15 billion and $20 billion in a deal that could place the firm in the same league as the artificial intelligence (AI) titan OpenAI and Elon Musk’s aerospace company, SpaceX.
Citing two people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reports that the issuer of the largest stablecoin by market cap is seeking additional capital in exchange for a roughly 3% stake through a private placement.
The sources say the transaction would involve new equity rather than the current investors selling their stakes. The financial giant Cantor Fitzgerald is also acting as the lead adviser.
The top end target of the deal could value the El Salvador-based crypto firm at around $500 billion, although a person involved in the process says the eventual numbers could be significantly lower.
The talks are still in the early stages and details of the proposed investment may still change, but the report says the prospective investors already received access to a data room to help them decide whether or not to participate in the fundraising. The parties expect to close the deal by the end of the year.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino says the additional funding will support the firm’s operations beyond stablecoins.
“Tether is evaluating a raise from a selected group of high-profile key investors, to maximize the scale of the Company’s strategy across all existing and new business lines (stablecoins, distribution ubiquity, AI, commodity trading, energy, communications, media) by several orders of magnitude.”
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