The investment arm of cryptocurrency company Tether Holdings expects to pump more than $1 billion into deals over the next 12 months, according to CEO Paolo Ardoino.
Tether Investments has an ever-growing team of 15 people who evaluate up to hundreds of proposals each month, most of which come directly from startups, Arduino said in an interview.
He added that the company is focusing on alternative financial infrastructure for emerging markets, artificial intelligence and biotechnology, areas in which it has already spent about $2 billion over the past two years.
The investment plan highlights the growing financial influence and ambition of the issuer of the world's largest stablecoin, a type of cryptocurrency designed to peg to a real-world asset at a one-to-one ratio.
Tether's stablecoin, USDT, is pegged to the US dollar and has a market capitalization of approximately $112.4 billion.
The company has recently invested most of the reserves that support the stable currency Tether USDT in US Treasury bonds and other securities, achieving billions of dollars in profits during the current period when interest rates are rising.
