Tether, the company behind USDT, the world's largest stablecoin by market capitalization, is investing in Parfin, a Latin American crypto platform, to promote the adoption of USDT among institutions in Latin America. The investment reflects Tether's efforts to support financial institutions using USDT as a core settlement asset for use cases such as global transactions, real-world asset tokenization, and yield-bearing credit markets. The terms of the investment were not disclosed.
Parfin provides tools for digital asset custody, tokenization, trading, and management in Latin America, which has recorded nearly $1.5 trillion in crypto transaction volume. Tether referenced a recent Chainalysis report to support this claim.
Latin America has become a hub for grassroots crypto adoption, often in defiance of central bank policies due to unstable monetary environments. In countries with high inflation, limited access to foreign currency, and underbanked populations, citizens are increasingly turning to decentralized financial tools, especially stablecoins like USDT. For example, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino revealed a massive surge in USDT adoption in Bolivia, a country where crypto has faced strict regulations and financial instability.
USDT's dominance in Latin America can be attributed to its high liquidity and availability on P2P platforms, strong mobile wallet integration in regions with limited banking, US dollar peg providing relative price stability, and ease of use for non-technical users. Many users in Bolivia now prefer USDT on TRON (TRC20) for its low fees and speed.
Tether has been expanding into a comprehensive ecosystem of stablecoins, commodity-backed tokens, and blockchain infrastructure to serve diverse global markets. Besides USDT, Tether has also launched EURT (Euro Tether), which is pegged 1:1 to the Euro, and MXNT (Mexican Peso Tether), which is pegged to the Mexican Peso.
Tether's recent activities include investments in Latin America and expansion of USDT usability. Minipay now allows instant Tether (USDT) spending across Brazil's PIX and Argentina's Mercado Pago. In September 2024, Tether invested $100 million in Latin American agro-industrial company Adecoagro, with operations in Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil. The deal represents Tether's push to diversify its holdings into the ag and food sectors.
Tether has also experienced its share of controversy, including regulatory probes. In 2021, the company was fined $41 million by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over allegedly misleading investors on the status of its U.S. dollar reserves that serve to back Tether tokens.
