Tether buys $20m Ualá stake as LatAm crypto push grows
Tether has taken a $20 million equity stake in Argentine neobank Ualá, marking the stablecoin issuer's latest move to deploy its massive reserve profits across Latin America's digital finance sector despite ongoing regulatory hurdles to token integration.
Tether has invested $20 million in Ualá, acquiring an equity stake in the Argentine digital bank. The capital injection forms part of a broader $197 million funding round announced in March, which was led by Allianz X and valued the neobank at $3.2 billion post-money. Based on that headline valuation, Tether's outlay represents a roughly 0.6 percent stake, though exact terms may differ.
Despite being the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, Tether will not see its USDT token integrated into Ualá’s platform in the near future. Ualá CEO Pierpaolo Barbieri noted that current regulations in Argentina and Mexico prevent an immediate rollout of the cryptocurrency. As a result, Tether is participating strictly as a financial investor rather than a strategic product partner.
Ualá operates as a significant consumer financial platform, providing digital accounts, payment cards, lending and investment services to more than 11 million customers across Argentina, Mexico and Colombia. Bringing a major crypto entity onto its cap table provides Ualá with additional financial backing to compete in these markets. This occurs even without an immediate product tie-up due to regulatory friction.
The Ualá deal fits into an aggressive Latin American investment strategy funded entirely by Tether's operational profits. The company generates excess capital from the income earned on the reserves backing its USDT stablecoin, which currently has $184 billion in circulation. Tether posted a $1.04 billion profit in the first quarter, providing substantial firepower for venture bets.
This capital deployment has accelerated rapidly across the region in recent months. In April, Tether led a $14 million funding round for Argentine crypto payments wallet Belo, and earlier this month it invested $20 million into Brazilian crypto exchange Mercado Bitcoin. The company also controls a 70 percent stake in Adecoagro, a major agricultural and energy producer operating across Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.
