SoftBank, Ark Invest make shortlist for Tether’s $20B funding round

SoftBank and Ark Invest are now in talks to back Tether in the massive deal that would push the crypto giant’s valuation to $500 billion, according to Bloomberg.

What matters here is that Masayoshi Son and Cathie Wood are seriously considering writing huge checks for Tether, the company behind the world’s biggest stablecoin, USDT.

The El Salvador-based company is looking to raise between $15 billion and $20 billion by selling just 3% of itself in a private round. Masayoshi’s SoftBank and Cathie’s Ark are part of a very small group of investors who’ve made it to the shortlist.

Neither Tether nor SoftBank gave Bloomberg any comment, and Ark said they had nothing to add. But this thing is very much alive.

SoftBank and Ark Invest step deeper into crypto

Both firms are known for betting early and big on risky tech plays. Masayoshi has dropped billions into semiconductors, AI, and robotics. He’s also planning to throw $30 billion at OpenAI.

Cathie, who’s been all over crypto for years, already backed Circle, the closest competitor to Tether, with a market cap of $74 billion. But Tether’s token pile is sitting at $173.5 billion right now. That’s more than double Circle’s, and both of them are publicly visible on-chain.

As Cryptopolitan previously reported, this new deal could put Tether up there with the most valuable private companies on Earth. But the real shock is what it could mean for the people running the show.

If the $500 billion number sticks, Chairman Giancarlo Devasini would instantly become the fifth-richest person in the world, sitting just behind Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, and Jeff Bezos. His stake alone would be worth $224 billion, blowing past Warren Buffett.

CEO Paolo Ardoino and former CEO Jean-Louis van der Velde would each be worth around $95 billion, landing them among the 20 richest people alive. Another major shareholder, Stuart Hoegner, would hit $60 billion.

Every single one of them would end up wealthier than Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who’s sitting on $52 billion right now. Jeremy Allaire, who co-founded Circle, is worth about $2.6 billion in comparison.

Cantor Fitzgerald’s hands are all over the deal

Behind the scenes, Cantor Fitzgerald is steering the whole process. The firm is not just Tether’s lead adviser, it actually manages the company’s reserves and holds a convertible bond from them. Cantor has been around for decades, but now it’s making serious cash from crypto.

The firm was long led by Howard Lutnick, who’s now the U.S. Commerce Secretary under President Donald Trump. Yeah, Trump is back in the White House, and one of his cabinet members is directly tied to the hottest crypto deal of the year.

USDT, the stablecoin issued by Tether, is pegged to the dollar and backed by assets like U.S. Treasuries. That setup lets users move cash without relying on banks. The company earns profit from interest on its reserves, which are invested in short-term government debt. It’s simple, but it prints money.

Despite all that money, Tether has taken heat for years, especially in the U.S., over allegations that it’s been used in shady transactions. That’s part of why they want this deal.