Galaxy Research director Alex Thorn published a piece on X titled “Don’t Underestimate Tether,” laying out just how far the USDT issuer has expanded beyond stablecoins. The circulating supply of USDT has now climbed past $185 billion, reinforcing its position as the most dominant stablecoin in the market by a wide margin.
But the real surprise is what sits behind the scenes. According to Thorn, Tether has quietly become the largest centralized finance lender in crypto, with more than $14 billion in active loans outstanding. That puts it ahead of traditional CeFi players that once defined the lending space.
The company’s reach now extends well beyond financial services. Tether is investing in agriculture and robotics, running Bitcoin mining and high performance computing data centers, and building into emerging tech through projects like its AI health application QVAC and the private messaging platform Keet.
Financially, the operation is throwing off serious cash. Thorn revealed that Tether paid over $10 billion in dividends to shareholders in just the first nine months of this year, a figure that underlines how profitable and capital efficient the business has become.
Once viewed narrowly as a stablecoin issuer, Tether is now operating more like a diversified global infrastructure company. And as Galaxy Research puts it, this is exactly why the market should not underestimate it.
