Join us for the first ever Sports Blockchain Summit hosted in partnership with JohnWallStreet!

The last time I wrote about Tether taking a 5% stake in Juventus, I framed the piece by asking:

Well, that question needs to be asked again — but this time, with the context that Tether has now acquired 10% of Juventus.

Let’s quickly summarise the story so far:

Before we get into this, let’s look at Tether themselves as a refresher.

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 billion, 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, taking a 70% stake.

There is a lot to unpack here, again, so let’s take this step by step because there are so many questions to be answered.

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

Tether are very serious, and have an incredible warchest. I’m not sure that this ends up with a majority ownership, but stranger things have happened.

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 not to 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 all 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 Italian (and Juventus!) leanings.

5) Is this strategic or just PR?

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, for Juventus FC, I’m unsure this is huge in the short term, even if Tether had majority ownership.

This is, however, smart from an optics perspective as they diversify their investment strategy outside of crypto. It’s also ~ the same price to buy 10% of Juventus as it is to be Manchester City’s front of jersey sponsor for 3-4 seasons.

If you’re flush with cash, and don’t need to pay something over 3-4 years, what has a better impact?

You could view this as an incredibly smart sponsorship deal without any of the marketing collateral.

Tether CEO Ardoino has said:

"We're fine to remain as minority investors as well as engaging in different talks. We don't want to be hostile, we don't want to be seen as aggressive, we just want to help (Juventus) because we see a huge and unexpressed potential. Our main goal is to cooperate with the (Juventus) managers and owner."

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

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

Is this significant or even linked? I think the timing is fascinating. 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.

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.

That being said, we have seen even aggressive takeover attempts fall short in football, and this could go in that direction also.

8) Serie A is hurting financially

Italy has serious financial issues when it comes to football.

In 2023/24 only two teams in Serie A boasted positive balance sheets, Fiorentina and Monza.

Covid resulted in a league-wide $1.4 billion loss.

Many teams in Italy’s top flight do not own their stadiums, which puts more strain on finances and makes the asset itself worth less.

With broadcast rights in European soccer also struggling, Ligue 1 in France, in particular, being the canary in the coalmine, many are asking the question “where does the appreciation of the asset come from?”.

9) Tether are the first, but they won’t be the last

Tether might be the first crypto company taking a significant step into sports ownership, but they won’t be the last.

Sports is becoming an asset class, and sellers and brokers are looking at who has significant capital.

To give you another idea of just how vast the financial power some of these companies have.

Crypto company Ripple is rumoured to have offered $5-6bn to buy USDC stablecoin issuer Circle, and are rumoured to be mooting a bid of up to $20bn after their previous one was unsuccessful.

This industry is mainstream now, and very much so in terms of capital.

10) Crypto’s legitimacy means this is not to be taken lightly

The U.S, Europe and U.K will all have crypto asset regulation by 2026.

Crypto isn’t going away. It’s getting bigger and more legitimate, and starting to eat into the pie of mainstream products in every single industry.

Public blockchains are essentially 10 years old outside of Bitcoin. This is the beginning, not the end, after a few false starts.

Governments agree with that sentiment because you don’t regulate industries that will not have a large impact on consumers.

Thanks for reading the latest edition of the Sporting Crypto newsletter!

If you enjoyed this, please tell your friends who might be interested - and share it on socials.

This newsletter is for informational purposes only and is not financial, business or legal advice.These are the author’s thoughts & opinions and do not represent the opinions of any other person, business, entity or sponsor. Any companies or projects mentioned are for illustrative purposes unless specified.

The contents of this newsletter should not be used in any public or private domain without the express permission of the author.

The contents of this newsletter should not be used for any commercial activity, for example - research report, consultancy activity, or paywalled article without the express permission of the author.

Please note, the services and products advertised by our sponsors (by use of terminology such as but not limited to; supported by, sponsored by or brought to you by) in this newsletter carry inherent risks and should not be regarded as completely safe or risk-free. Third-party entities provide these services and products, and we do not control, endorse, or guarantee the accuracy, efficacy, or safety of their offerings.

It's crucial to provide our readers with clear information regarding the inherent nature of services and products that might be covered in this newsletter, including those advertised by our sponsors from time to time. When you buy cryptoassets (including NFTs) your capital is at risk. Risks associated with cryptoassets include price volatility, loss of capital (the value of your cryptoassets could drop to zero), complexity, lack of regulation and lack of protection. Most service providers operating in the cryptoasset industry do not currently operate in a regulated industry. Therefore, please be aware that when you buy cryptoassets, you are not protected under financial compensation schemes and protections typically afforded to investors when dealing with regulated and authorised entities to operate as financial services firm.