USDT has become indispensable to global cryptocurrency trading, yet the people controlling its extraordinarily profitable issuer remain largely beyond public scrutiny
A PRIVATE GIANT AT THE HEART OF DIGITAL FINANCE
Tether occupies a position unlike almost any other private company. Its USDT stablecoin circulates throughout the cryptocurrency economy, providing traders, businesses and ordinary users with a digital substitute for the US dollar.
Each token is designed to maintain a value of one dollar, allowing money to move between cryptocurrency exchanges without repeatedly passing through conventional banks. This apparent simplicity has turned USDT into essential financial infrastructure, particularly in countries where access to dollars or dependable banking services is restricted.
The company behind it has consequently become one of the richest private enterprises in the world. Estimates have placed Tether’s value at about $200 billion—more than the stock-market value of numerous household-name corporations. Yet its current ownership remains remarkably difficult to establish.
Unlike a listed company, Tether is not required to publish the same detailed information about its shareholders, executive remuneration or internal governance. Estimates of individual holdings exist, but the company has not publicly provided a definitive breakdown.
MONEY WITHOUT THE USUAL BANKS
USDT has helped create a financial network operating partly outside traditional banking channels. It can be transferred across borders within minutes, held in a digital wallet and traded at any hour.
For people living under unstable currencies or strict capital controls, that accessibility can be extremely valuable. For cryptocurrency exchanges, USDT provides a convenient unit in which assets can be priced and transactions settled.
The same qualities have also attracted criminals. Investigators have repeatedly identified USDT in money-laundering schemes, sanctions evasion and fraud operations, including industrialised scam centres operating in parts of Southeast Asia.
That does not mean Tether itself is responsible for every unlawful transaction involving its token, any more than a banknote manufacturer is responsible for every crime involving cash. Tether has worked with international authorities and has frozen wallets connected to criminal investigations. Its co-operation is increasingly important because the company possesses the ability to block certain USDT holdings—power that sits uneasily beside cryptocurrency’s original promise of finance beyond central control.
EXCEPTIONAL PROFITS FROM A SMALL WORKFORCE
Tether’s business model is exceptionally lucrative. Customers provide conventional money or other approved assets in exchange for newly issued tokens. Tether invests much of the backing it holds, including substantial sums in short-term United States government debt, and retains the income generated by those assets.
Higher interest rates transformed that arrangement into a formidable profit-making machine. With only a few hundred employees and relatively modest operating costs, Tether has reported annual earnings comparable with those of much larger financial institutions.
Its holdings of US Treasury securities have become so extensive that its exposure rivals or exceeds that of several sovereign states. The company has also accumulated gold and invested in businesses spanning artificial intelligence, telecommunications, energy, agriculture and digital media.
Tether has said some of its bullion is kept at a highly secure former nuclear facility in Switzerland. Chief executive Paolo Ardoino described the location to Bloomberg as resembling something from a James Bond film—an image which neatly captures the company’s peculiar mixture of immense wealth, technological ambition and deliberate mystique.
THE SEARCH FOR TETHER’S OWNERS
Research by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists examined corporate records, internal documents and regulatory filings to reconstruct parts of Tether’s history.
The project began in 2014 under the name Realcoin. Among its founders was Brock Pierce, the technology entrepreneur and former child actor who appeared in the first two Mighty Ducks films. The concept initially struggled to attract financial support, but its prospects improved after it became closely connected with the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange.
The original founders eventually transferred their interests to executives associated with Bitfinex. Among those who emerged as central figures were Giancarlo Devasini, a former plastic surgeon who later entered the electronics and cryptocurrency businesses, and Dutch entrepreneur Jean-Louis van der Velde.
Historical records examined by the ICIJ suggest that ownership changed substantially during Tether’s early development. Devasini was recorded as holding all the shares in Tether Holdings, then incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, in early 2016. Documents were subsequently prepared to transfer a majority of those shares to van der Velde and a further portion to DigFinex.
By about 2018, the balance had apparently changed again. Records reported by the ICIJ and The Wall Street Journal indicated that Devasini controlled approximately 43 per cent, while van der Velde held about 15 per cent.
Christopher Harborne and Stuart Hoegner were also identified as substantial shareholders. Paolo Ardoino, who later became chief executive, reportedly held around 3.5 per cent at that stage, while another shareholder, Kristian Hansen, was listed with approximately 6.6 per cent.
These figures provide a historical snapshot, not a reliable account of the company’s ownership today. Tether did not confirm the percentages when questioned by the ICIJ, and the consortium was unable to determine whether several of the shareholders had retained, increased or sold their interests.
A POSSIBLE CONSOLIDATION OF CONTROL
More recent American regulatory filings provide one of the clearest clues about where control may now reside.
Documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with Tether’s investments state that Devasini holds more than 50 per cent of the voting interest in Tether Holdings. The wording indicates that he exercises controlling power over the group, although voting control does not necessarily reveal his precise economic ownership.
Earlier filings frequently named Devasini alongside van der Velde. Van der Velde later ceased appearing in some of those documents, adding to speculation that authority had become more concentrated.
Tether has not publicly explained whether this reflects a transfer of shares, a reorganisation of voting rights or some other internal arrangement. Whatever the mechanism, Forbes has estimated Devasini’s wealth at tens of billions of dollars, placing him among the richest individuals in the world.
FROM THE BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS TO EL SALVADOR
Tether transferred its headquarters and corporate registration from the British Virgin Islands to El Salvador in 2025. The move placed the company in a country whose government has enthusiastically embraced Bitcoin and attempted to establish itself as an international centre for digital finance.
It also raised further questions about disclosure. The British Virgin Islands, despite its long association with offshore companies, has agreed to participate in international arrangements allowing beneficial-ownership information to be exchanged with overseas tax authorities.
El Salvador has not joined some of those arrangements. Professor Jason Sharman of Cambridge University told the ICIJ that it remained one of the few jurisdictions offering what he characterised as older-style corporate secrecy.
Salvadoran documents examined by the consortium reportedly failed to identify Tether’s present shareholders. The move may have produced a friendlier regulatory environment, but it has done little to satisfy those seeking a transparent account of who ultimately owns the business.
THE RESERVES QUESTION
Tether’s credibility depends upon confidence that every USDT token is properly supported by assets. If large numbers of customers attempted to redeem their holdings simultaneously, the company would need sufficient liquid reserves to meet those demands.
Regulators have previously challenged Tether’s description of those reserves. In 2021, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission imposed a $41 million penalty after finding that statements claiming USDT was fully backed by dollars had been misleading during the period it investigated.
For years, Tether published quarterly attestations rather than a complete audit. An attestation offers professional assurance about figures recorded at a particular date, but it is narrower than an audit examining financial statements, controls and transactions across an accounting period.
That position has now changed in an important respect. On August 13, 2026—six days after the ICIJ investigation was published—Tether announced that KPMG US had completed a full audit of Tether International’s financial statements for 2025.
KPMG issued an unqualified opinion, meaning that the audited statements were judged to present the company’s financial position fairly in all material respects under US accounting standards. Tether said the process covered its assets, liabilities, transactions, systems, valuations and supporting evidence, and included the physical inspection of its gold holdings.
Reuters reported, however, that the full audited financial statements had not been publicly released at the time of Tether’s announcement. The audit therefore represents a major advance in independent scrutiny of the reserves, but it does not by itself resolve the separate question of who owns and controls the wider corporate group.
THE LUTNICK CONNECTION
Tether’s relationship with Cantor Fitzgerald has brought the company closer to the centre of political power in Washington.
Cantor acts as an important financial partner and custodian for Tether’s vast holdings of US government securities. Before joining Donald Trump’s administration as Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick led Cantor for more than three decades and publicly defended Tether’s ability to meet its obligations.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Cantor obtained rights to an approximately 5 per cent interest in Tether during 2024. At a $200 billion valuation, a holding of that size could be worth about $10 billion. Tether has not publicly confirmed the precise terms or present value of the arrangement.
Lutnick subsequently transferred his Cantor interests to trusts for his adult children and to outside investors as part of his government ethics commitments. Cantor said he had relinquished any economic benefit from the group.
Political scrutiny intensified after reports that Tether had made an undisclosed loan to a trust benefiting Lutnick’s four children. Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden wrote to Ardoino and Lutnick seeking details of the transaction and asking whether it created national-security or conflict-of-interest concerns.
The existence of an inquiry is not evidence of bribery or misconduct. Representatives of Cantor and the Commerce Department have maintained that Lutnick complied with his ethical obligations. Nevertheless, the combination of a reported equity interest, a loan involving a family trust and Cantor’s role as Tether’s banker has produced legitimate questions which fuller disclosure could help answer.
PRIVATE POWER ON A PUBLIC SCALE
Tether illustrates a broader transformation in global capitalism. Increasing numbers of hugely valuable businesses are remaining privately owned, allowing them to raise capital and acquire international influence without accepting the disclosure obligations imposed upon public companies.
Boston College law professor Renée Jones has warned that concentrating enormous wealth inside lightly disclosed private companies makes the work of regulators and investigators considerably more difficult.
In Tether’s case, the concern is magnified because it does not merely sell software or consumer products. It issues a form of private money used across borders by millions of people and embedded deeply within cryptocurrency markets.
The company has demonstrated that USDT can provide speed, liquidity and access where traditional finance is cumbersome or unavailable. It has also demonstrated how rapidly a private issuer can accumulate power when its money becomes essential to an international marketplace.
A WINDOW OPENED, BUT THE CURTAINS REMAIN
Tether’s newly completed audit addresses one of the most persistent criticisms levelled against the company. Independent scrutiny from a major accountancy firm is materially different from relying solely upon management assurances and periodic reserve snapshots.
Yet financial backing and corporate ownership are not the same issue. Even if every USDT is adequately supported, the public still has a legitimate interest in knowing who commands the company, how voting power is distributed and where possible conflicts of interest may arise.
Tether now stands at the intersection of cryptocurrency, sovereign debt, gold markets, law enforcement and American politics. It has acquired some of the characteristics of a bank, a global payments network and a private central institution—all without the public visibility normally expected of any one of them.
The great paradox is unmistakable: a company built around transparent digital ledgers remains remarkably difficult to examine from the outside.
