For the first time, Tether is investing in the agricultural sector. As stablecoin competition intensifies, the USDT-publisher for diversification and is putting $100 million into Adecoagro.

Stablecoin giant Tether is investing $100 million to acquire a 9.8% stake in Adecoagro SA (AGRO). This first investment in an agricultural company is confirmed by an at the SEC submitted document. Previously, Tether had invested in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, Bitcoin mining and digital education initiatives, according to the company behind USDT.

Founded in 2002, the agricultural company Adecoagro is a major milk producer in Argentina and has according to its own data about a processing capacity of 550,000 liters per day at its plant in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The company also owns a minority stake in Agrotoken, an Argentine company focused on tokenization of agricultural commodities.

Tether apparently used "bar funds from its own corporate assets" for the investment. The stablecoin giant now owns 10,048,249 shares of Adecoagro. USDT of Tether is the largest stablecoin with a market capitalization of more than $118 billion. In second place is USDC of Circle with a market capitalization of about $35 billion.

"Tether views land as an important asset class that complements its existing investments in Bitcoin and gold," a Tether employee told CoinDesk.

Recently, Tether's company proved its profitability. The company reported for the first half of 2024 a net profit of as much as $5.2 billion. However, competition in stablecoins is increasing due to new market participants. For example, the stablecoin "PayPal USD" has reached over a billion dollars in market capitalization in a short period of time.