Tether Invests in Whop to Power Stablecoin Payments

Tether's investment arm injected $200 million into Whop, establishing a $1.6 billion valuation for the digital marketplace. This move is part of a larger diversification for Tether, whose venture portfolio now spans over 120 companies valued at more than $10 billion, including ventures in AI, energy, and data. Whop facilitates approximately $3 billion in annual payouts to creators across 144 countries. The platform is experiencing rapid expansion, with its gross transaction volume growing at a rate of roughly 25% month-over-month. The core of the partnership involves Whop integrating Tether's Wallet Development Kit (WDK), enabling self-custodial wallets for its users. This infrastructure allows users to hold their own funds and paves the way for introducing DeFi primitives like lending and borrowing directly on the platform. This investment signals Tether's strategic push to embed stablecoins into real-world economic activity, moving beyond their use in speculative trading. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated the focus is on providing "efficient digital dollar and wallet infrastructure that can scale to billions of people." With the new capital, Whop intends to fund its expansion into Latin America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. The company also plans to develop advanced AI tools to create new "agentic income opportunities" for internet entrepreneurs. Whop CEO Steven Schwartz aims to build the "world's largest internet market," where payments are as borderless as the internet itself. This vision stems from the founding team's background, having started building and selling digital products online together since they were 13 years old.