Tether has taken a $100 million equity stake in Anchorage Digital, formalizing and deepening an existing commercial relationship between the stablecoin issuer and the federally chartered U.S. crypto bank.
The investment, announced by Tether, builds on earlier cooperation including Anchorage Digital’s role as issuer of USAt, a dollar‑pegged stablecoin that launched on Jan. 27 and is structured to operate under the federal payment stablecoin framework created by the GENIUS Act in July 2025.
Anchorage Digital Bank, founded in San Francisco in 2017, is the first federally chartered digital-asset bank in the United States. The bank provides custody, settlement, staking and stablecoin issuance services for institutional clients—capabilities that align with Tether’s market position and product ambitions.
Tether made the $100 million investment through Tether Investments, its El Salvador–based investment arm. The deal follows media reports that Anchorage had been exploring a broader capital raise in the $200 million to $400 million range ahead of a potential initial public offering next year.
Tether is the issuer of USDt (USDT), the world’s largest stablecoin by market capitalization. According to DefiLlama, Tether has roughly $185 billion in USDT in circulation, accounting for about 60% of the stablecoin market.
The scale of Tether’s balance sheet has helped fuel acquisitions and strategic investments. In a fourth‑quarter attestation, Tether reported more than $10 billion in net profit for 2025 and $6.3 billion in excess reserves. CEO Paolo Ardoino has said the company has deployed profits to invest in more than 120 firms and expects the portfolio to grow further.
Recent targets of Tether’s deployment include a stake in Ledn, a Bitcoin-backed consumer lending platform, and leading an $8 million funding round for Speed, a Bitcoin payments company focused on enterprise stablecoin transactions over the Lightning Network. Reports have also linked Tether to consideration of a roughly $1.15 billion investment in German robotics firm Neura.
Tether has also been expanding its Bitcoin holdings. On Jan. 1 it disclosed an addition of 8,888 BTC at the end of 2025, bringing its total to more than 96,000 BTC. By one tally, BitcoinTreasuries.NET, that allocation would place Tether as the second‑largest corporate holder of Bitcoin if it were a public company.
As with all reporting in fast-moving markets, readers are encouraged to independently verify the details of this transaction and related financial disclosures.