Tether has about $4.8B in exposure to US stock markets

Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, holds about $4.8 billion of exposure to the US stock markets through 13 US-listed companies.

These entanglements include a controversial video-streaming platform that platforms right-wing influencers, royalties from gold mines, satellites, and a $BTC treasury play.

Protos has reviewed regulatory filings in the US to better understand Tether’s links to these public markets.

Video-streaming for Donald Trump Jr.

Rumble (Nasdaq: RUM) is a video-streaming platform that partners with Donald Trump Jr. to stream his podcast, Triggered.

Tether has a 50.3% stake in Rumble, counting its warrants.

However, Tether doesn’t truly have control of Rumble, deliberately staying under 9.9% voting control.

Rumble also had previously acquired Tether-owned Northern Data.

This firm has started advertising itself as an “AI infrastructure and video company” as it widens its focus from just doing video streaming, effectively splitting itself in half (still under the RUM Group parent), with Rumble maintaining the video platform and Quake AI leading the cloud and AI business.

Tether is the most important purchaser of advertising from Rumble, according to Rumble’s 10-Q. According to the filing, “Tether has committed to provide advertising services of $50 million per year over a two-year period commencing February 16, 2026.

It also shows that, as of August, Rumble “recognized revenue of $6,730,859… for the six months ended June 30, 2026” related to this deal.

For quarter two, Rumble recognized $5.54 million from this Tether arrangement, representing approximately 14% of the $40.4 million in revenues for that quarter.

Tether is also one of the technology providers for the Rumble Wallet and some Rumble streamers have been advertising that if you sign up, you’ll receive “$10 in US Stablecoin (USAT).”

Bitcoin treasury

Tether is intimately tied in to $BTC treasury firm Twenty One Capital (NYSE: XXI).

For one thing, Tether and Bitfinex became majority owners when they provided the $BTC that got the firm off the ground.

It also had the right to nominate four of the seven board members for the firm. The four it chose were:

• Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s CEO
• Zachary Lyons, Tether’s CIO
• Bo Hines, Tether US’ CEO
• Raphael Zagury, CEO for Elektron Energy, a Tether-linked $BTC mining operation

Zagury has subsequently been elevated to CEO for the firm following Jack Mallers’ departure.

This firm, which does little besides hold $BTC, has often traded below the value of the asset.

Currently, it trades at approximately six-tenths of the value of its $BTC.

Mining for gold

Tether, whose namesake tokens are partially backed by gold, has also become an investor in the gold industry.

This includes a 31% stake in Elemental Royalty (Nasdaq: ELE) that has fallen to approximately 27% after Elemental, which owns royalties in precious metals firms, issued new shares for two acquisitions.

The executive chairman for Elemental Royalty, Juan Sartori, is also a principal of Tether, an executive chairman for Tether-controlled Adecoagro, and a director for Gold.com (NYSE: GOLD).

Tether is also an investor in Gold.com, disclosing a 12.6% stake, which has risen over 13%.

The firm also discloses that it “leases precious metals from Tether, and that Tether purchases and sells precious metals with it. Tether also utilizes the company’s secure storage and logistics services.”

The firm also mentioned that for “fiscal 2026, the aggregate company revenues from business activities with Tether was $1.2 billion.”

In Gold.com’s recent 10-Q, it included a disclosure that Tether represented over 25% of its total revenue for the quarter.

Sartori, Tether’s head of special projects, is also a director for Gold.com.

Tether also owns a 12.6% stake in Versamet Royalties (Nasdaq: VMET) that it acquired from Royal Gold.

Tether nominates Juan Presa to serve on the board of this firm, which owns royalty rights on precious metals.

Additionally, Tether owns 14.6% of Metalla Royalty and Streaming (NYSE: MTA), another precious metal royalty firm.

That’s not all; Tether also owns a 14.4% stake in Gold Royalty (NYSE: GROY), another firm that owns royalties on precious metal mines.

Tether also owns a 12% stake in Aurelion (Nasdaq: AURE), a digital asset treasury firm that holds Tether-issued Tether Gold (XAUT).

This firm is controlled by Antalpha Platform (Nasdaq: ANTA).

Tether also invests in Antalpha Platform, owning approximately 8%.

This firm also holds XAUT and Tether Gold, and lends to $BTC miners, specifically Bitmain customers.

Mining for digital gold

Tether disclosed a 19.7% stake in Jihan Wu-founded Bitdeer (Nasdaq: BTDR).

The stablecoin giant relatively actively trades this firm, selling repeatedly in 2025, and then buying back shares before selling again in June of this year.

There’s also Adecoagro (NYSE: AGRO), which is mostly an agricultural conglomerate but has worked with Tether on $BTC mining pilots.

This project was meant to allow them “to monetize 10 MW of surplus energy.”

Tether controls this firm.

Space, the final frontier

Tether refuses to limit itself to terrestrial concerns, investing in Satellogic (Nasdaq: SATL).

Interestingly, Steven Mnuchin, the former Treasury Secretary under Donald Trump, is also a major holder.

He owns 20.3% of the firm through his investment firms.

Whatever SDEV is

Stablecoin Development Corporation (NYSE: SDEV) is a SKY digital asset treasury firm.

Tether has beneficial ownership over 9.9% of this company.

The firm has lost massive amounts of its value, approximately 99% since Tether got involved.

Oobit and VCI Global

Tether has also ended up a holder in VCI Global (Nasdaq: VCIG) because of its pre-existing stake in Oobit, a payments firm.

The Oobit token foundation, S2MA Capital, exchanged OOBT tokens for equity in this firm, and since Tether was a major investor in Oobit, it ended up a holder in this firm.

This firm has been losing value at an incredible rate.

One firm has a stake in Tether

Powerlaw Corp (Nasdaq: PWRL) claims that it has a stake in Tether.

This entity claims that it acquired approximately $20 million worth of Tether equity through an entity called Rio Grande Growth Equity 1, LLC.

This fund also owns stakes in Canva, Deel, Kalshi, Kraken, OpenAI, SpaceX, and Stripe.

What is it worth?

In total, Tether has approximately $4.8 billion in exposure to these public markets.

This is dominated by its role in a couple of the large firms, including Twenty One, Rumble, and Adecoagro.

This amount of value and the wide variety of firms in which it’s invested show the increasingly varied role that Tether has assigned itself.

It’s not solely issuing its dollar-pegged stablecoin; it’s using a wide variety of the funds it controls to invest across industries.

It also placed some of its executives, like Head of Special Projects Juan Sartori, into key roles at some of these firms.

Broadly, this review illustrates how critically important Tether is as a financial firm.