Tether: a $200 billion crypto company you can’t look inside - International Consortium of Investigative Journalists - ICIJ

Tether, which mints the world’s most widely used crypto token, is likely one of the most valuable private companies on earth, with an estimated value of $200 billion, exceeding the total share value of McDonald’s.

The company’s token, known as USDT, is a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar that has become the backbone of a parallel banking system pervading parts of the world. The token has also become a key tool for money launderers for industrial-scale scam centers, which operate out of grim office complexes across Southeast Asia. Tether’s assistance in law enforcement investigations has become highly sought-after by agencies around the world struggling to address surging crypto crime.

Because of Tether’s barebones workforce — it employs just a few hundred people — the stablecoin giant’s low overhead helps to produce astonishing profits. These riches have made Tether a rainmaker in global finance, becoming a bigger buyer of U.S. government debt than Saudi Arabia or South Korea.

But who owns this powerful and controversial firm? The company has never given a full picture publicly. Estimates of who owns how much of Tether are at odds with each other. Because most firms worth many billions are publicly traded — a distinction that generally comes with disclosures of a firm’s major owners — Tether may also place among the most opaque companies of its size.