Tether, the issuer of the world's largest stablecoin USDT, has announced a strategic investment in LayerZero Labs, the company behind the interoperability infrastructure that powers Tether's own USD₀ and XAU₀ stablecoins. While the exact investment amount remains undisclosed, the move signals Tether's aggressive diversification strategy and its commitment to building foundational infrastructure for the digital asset ecosystem.
The investment is being executed through Tether Investments, the company's independent investment arm based in El Salvador, which deploys Tether's profits and excess reserves. This financial capacity is substantial; Tether reported generating profits exceeding $10 billion during 2025, with total assets reaching $193 billion and excess reserves growing to $6.3 billion.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino framed the investment as a bet on critical, real-world infrastructure. "Tether is investing in infrastructure that already provides real-world benefits," Ardoino stated. He emphasized LayerZero's role in enabling real-time transfer of digital assets across any transport layer and distributed ledger, a capability he sees as fundamental for the future. "This makes it possible for digital assets to serve the infinite agent AI economy, which will need such fundamental elements to facilitate micro-payments on an unprecedented scale," he added.
LayerZero's technology has already been validated at a massive scale through Tether's own products. Since its launch, the USD₀ stablecoin, which utilizes LayerZero's Omnichain Fungible Token (OFT) standard, has facilitated over $70 billion in cross-chain value transfer in under twelve months. This standard allows assets to move seamlessly across blockchains without fragmentation or loss of liquidity.
LayerZero CEO Bryan Pellegrino welcomed the deepened partnership, calling Tether "a company the world admires" for bringing the vision of borderless money to life. "Tether's deepening commitment with this investment is the final confirmation. We are excited to continue building the infrastructure for global permissionless markets together," Pellegrino said.
The investment aligns with Tether's stated strategy of supporting systems that reduce fragmentation, improve liquidity efficiency, and enable stablecoins to function as global settlement instruments across diverse blockchain environments.
