Tether has made a strategic investment in Parfin, a digital asset platform operating in London and Rio de Janeiro, aiming to enhance the presence of USDT within Latin America’s institutional marketplace and improve onchain settlement in the area.
According to Tether, this investment signifies their commitment to promoting USDt as a key settlement option for significant activities like cross-border transactions, real-world asset tokenization, and credit markets associated with trade finance, commercial invoices, and receivables.
Founded in 2019, Parfin focuses on creating the necessary infrastructure for institutions to manage, tokenize, and exchange digital assets. In October, it attained official registration in Argentina as a virtual asset service provider, with recognition from the national financial authority, and has been active in Brazil since 2020.
Tether’s CEO, Paolo Ardoino, stated that this investment reflects the organization’s “belief in Latin America as one of the global powerhouses for blockchain innovations.”
With a market capitalization nearing $183.73 billion, Tether’s USDT is the world’s largest stablecoin, amid a broader market cap for stablecoins of approximately $303.2 billion, according to data from DefiLlama. The specifics of Tether’s investment amount remain undisclosed, following their recent investment in Ledn, a platform focusing on Bitcoin-backed lending.
The Boom of Cryptocurrency in Latin America
An October report by Chainalysis illustrated that Latin America has established itself as a top crypto center, witnessing nearly $1.5 trillion in crypto transactions from July 2022 to June 2025. Brazil leads these numbers with $318.8 billion, making up almost a third of the total LATAM transactions, followed by Argentina at $93.9 billion.
One of the key factors propelling crypto adoption in Latin America is the need for hedge against inflation. Argentina has faced years of soaring inflation, and in September, a rush on the peso compelled the central bank to spend over $1 billion.
Stablecoins have emerged as one solution to this challenge, with a report from the Mexican crypto exchange Bitso last March indicating that stablecoins serve as a “store of value” for many Latin American citizens. In 2024, USDT and Circle’s USDC accounted for 39% of all cryptocurrency transactions on their platform.
Latin Americans are also increasingly relying on crypto to bridge the gaps in the region’s banking systems, utilizing stablecoins for everyday payments, savings, and lower-cost remittances, thus avoiding the high fees associated with SWIFT.
The CEO of Bybit’s Latin American division remarked in October that “Crypto is actually changing the lives of people” in this area.
Related: Tether mulls $1.15B deal with AI robotics startup Neura: Report
