Tether, the crypto company behind the world’s largest stablecoin, USDT intends to acquire the popular Italian football club Juventus FC, increasing its minority stake to 100%.
The firm said on Friday it had submitted a binding proposal for majority shareholder Exor’s 65.4% stake in the club in an all-cash offer, according to a blog post on Friday. If that deal goes through, Tether intends to make a takeover bid for the club’s remaining shares at the same price. Juventus FC SpA is a publicly traded company, with a market capitalization of $925 million as of Friday’s closing price.
Tether said it is “prepared” to invest $1 billion in the club if the transaction is completed.
“Our interest in Juventus comes from deep admiration and respect,” Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, a lifelong fan of the team, said in a statement. “Tether is in a position of solid financial health and intends to support Juventus with stable capital and a long-term horizon.”
The offering comes as Tether is expanding beyond its crypto roots, investing in artificial intelligence, payments, robotics and even sports. Its flagship token, the $188 billion USDT, is the dominant token in the fast-growing stablecoin sector and increasingly popular as a payments and savings vehicle in emerging countries. The company said its net profits exceeded $10 billion in the first nine months of the year, mainly due to the yield on the US Treasury bonds that back USDT. The company also holds 116 tons of gold, a dragon hoard that exceeds the holdings of some medium-sized nations.
Tether currently owns a more than 10% stake in Juventus, but expressed its intention earlier this year to seek a more active role in the Torino, Italy-based club.
The Juventus fan crypto token, called JUV (JUV), rose 30% on the news.
