Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, has invested $100 million to acquire a 9.8% stake in Latin American agricultural giant Adecoagro. This is Tether’s first investment in the agriculture and food sector.
Tether has made strategic investments in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, peer-to-peer platforms, Bitcoin (BTC) mining operations, and digital education initiatives, the company said in a filing.
Filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Source: sec.gov
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Tether used working capital to invest
Tether said in its filing that it “used cash from its own working capital” to invest in Adecoagro. Tether currently owns 10,048,249 shares of Adecoagro stock, representing 9.8% of the “outstanding common shares.”
Founded in 2002, Adecoagro is Argentina’s leading milk producer, with a plant in Buenos Aires that has a processing capacity of 550,000 liters per day, according to its website. The company entered the sugar, ethanol and energy business in Brazil in 2005.
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USDT expects competition in stablecoin market to intensify
Tether’s USDT (USDT) is the largest stablecoin, with a market capitalization of over $118 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Tether recently announced plans to introduce a new stablecoin pegged to the United Arab Emirates dirham (AED).
The new stablecoin will be launched in partnership with UAE-based Phoenix Group and Green Acorn Investments. The partnership aims to create a digital version of the dirham currency “fully backed by UAE-based liquid reserves.”
USDT’s financial status. Source: CoinMarketCap
However, the stablecoin market is becoming increasingly competitive with the emergence of new players such as PayPal’s USD-pegged stablecoin PayPal USD, which already has a market capitalization of over $1 billion.
Ripple Labs also announced initial testing of Ripple Labs Ripple USD (RLUSD), a US dollar-pegged stablecoin, on the XRP ledger and Ethereum mainnet. In the future, we plan to launch fiat-backed tokens on more blockchain networks.
On August 26th, the market capitalization of stablecoins, excluding algorithms, hit an all-time high of $168 billion. The market hit an all-time high of $167 billion in March 2022, but declined to $135 billion by the end of the year.
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