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What does it mean when one of the biggest crypto companies in the world buy a ‘larger than’ 5% stake in Italy’s biggest football club?

Beyond the headline itself — what does this mean for the football team? What does it mean for Tether? What does it mean for the industry?

Let’s start with the simple question; who are Tether?

Tether is behind USDT, the largest stablecoin in the cryptocurrency market, with a market capitalisation exceeding $145 billion. Stablecoins have become the first example of product-market fit in crypto, with the supply over $225.9 billion at the time of writing, which is up from ~$140 billion year-on-year. Digital dollars that settle instantly, 24/7, 365 days a year and allow those in the global south to hedge inflation risk, seem to be catching on.

The way Tether works in practice is simple. It maintains reserves that back each USDT stablecoin token with a corresponding value in traditional assets, acting as a proxy for the U.S. dollar.

While historically controversial due to questions surrounding their reserves, Tether has recently adopted more transparent reporting practices. Their most recent transparency report from December reveals that the bulk of their $143+ billion in reserves are in U.S. Treasury bills.

The stablecoin giant announced that their 2024 net profits exceeded $13 billion, making it one of the most profitable companies in crypto, and one of the most profitable companies on the planet per employee.

Their business model is very simple:

Tether has been aggressively expanding their portfolio of late, with the minority stake in Juventus being the latest in a lengthy line of acquisitions. Most notably, they made headlines in late 2024 with a reported $750m investment in video platform 'Rumble'. This marked their first significant venture outside the cryptocurrency space. In February 2025, Tether made a bid for a majority stake in $1 billion LatAm Agriculture business Adecoagro, which is currently being reviewed by their board.

So now that we have the background of what stablecoins are and how Tether’s business model works, let’s discuss their minority acquisition of Juventus FC.

Firstly, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino confirmed the company notified Italian market regulator Consob after crossing the 5% regulatory threshold of Juventus voting rights, as they are obligated to do.

Also per Ardoino, who is an Italian national and Juventus supporter himself, Tether has built its stake over the past two months through share purchases on the open market (per Reuters reporting). With Juventus's current market capitalisation of 1.2 billion euros, a 5% stake is worth approximately 60 million euros.

Juventus is one of the most successful and storied football clubs globally, having won 36 Serie A titles and reached the Champions League final nine times. Forbes values the club at more than $2 billion, placing it at No. 11 among global soccer clubs. However, the club reported a loss of nearly 200 million euros in the financial year ending June 30, 2024, and have raised around 900 million euros in fresh capital from shareholders over the past six years.

The Agnelli family's holding company Exor, which controls 64% of Juventus (and also owns Ferrari), has not sold any shares to Tether, and have consistently denied any plans to sell the club.

Ardoino described the move as a "strategic investment" that will help Tether become a "pioneer in merging new technologies, such as digital assets, AI, and biotech, with the well-established sports industry to drive change globally”.

Regarding any potential future plans, he added:

To summarise:

There’s so much to unpack here, so let’s take it step by step.

1) Firstly; I’m not surprised by this at all.

In my 2025 predictions, my most speculative prediction, but one that I hunch on was; Crypto[dot]com buying a sports team.

This was off the back of Tether buying a $750m stake in Rumble. It wasn’t Crypto[dot]com, but Tether who made the first move here. I predicted the crypto exchange because of their near-obsessive sports sponsorship strategy and recent venture into prediction markets.

2) This is the year crypto companies stop being ‘just’ crypto companies.

Some of these businesses are just too big, too profitable and have too much opportunity to not spread their wings.

Tether made $13b in profit (!!!!) in 2024.

Sovereign and huge private equity is the only wealth that can beat that.

3) Interest rates might not be this high forever

Tether’s main moneymaker is interest rates being high, and arbitrating that against USDT issuance.

If interest rates go down, they will make less money.

Diversifying from a point of strength (billions in yearly profit) is smart.

4) Anyone could have done this, Juventus are publicly traded. Right?

Whilst this is true, I don’t see the rationale in any company randomly stockpiling shares in any publicly traded football club unless they are trying to make a move for greater ownership or influence in the club.

Football clubs lose money. Investors and owners have so far made any of their money from the appreciation of the asset.

Tether are doing this to diversify their assets, but also because a) they want to be known beyond crypto and b) their exec team has big Italian (and Juventus!) leanings.

5) Is this strategic or just PR?

This is the hardest question to answer.

Tether talk about the potential to utilise crypto to reach a global, untapped and undermonetised audience that Juventus have.

Using stablecoins to do this, isn’t far away.

Especially if the global south is increasingly adopting this digital dollar.

If Juventus were able to add stablecoins as a payment method to their plumbing over the next couple of seasons, I wonder how much that would unlock for them? My guess is ‘not much right now, but a lot down the line’. So strategically, I’m unsure this is huge in the short term even if Tether were to have a greater influence at Juventus… which they currently do not.

For Tether, however, I think this is smart from an optics perspective as they diversify their investment strategy outside of crypto.

6) The Agnelli family JUST sold $3.2 billion worth of their Ferrari stake for M&A purposes

Exor, the Agnelli family HoldCo just sold $3.2 billion worth of their Ferrari stake for M&A purposes, but remain the automotive brand’s largest shareholder, and control the largest voting block.

Is this significant or even linked? I think the timing is extremely interesting. It’s touted as M&A money, so it will be interesting to see what it is spent on.

7) Does this tee up a majority sale in the future?

If we take everything above into account — I honestly think that there is a good chance Tether buy a larger stake of Juventus in the near future, and perhaps even a controlling stake at some point.

Italy has serious issues financially when it comes to football.

The clubs are crippled by the fact they don’t own their stadiums and the league has struggled with getting top-dollar broadcast rights globally post-pandemic.

I do not think this will be hostile, but as Exor continue to recalibrate their holdings and balance sheet — if Ferrari isn’t off the table — Juventus surely are not either.

To conclude:

This isn’t as significant as some make it out to be, but it’s definitely not a nothingburger.

Crypto is more legitimate, regulated and mainstream than ever.

The U.S. just announced a crypto strategic reserve.

The businesses in this industry are ready to throw their weight around.

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