Bitcoin is back in the spotlight after a week-long rally pushed the cryptocurrency above $79,000, with gains of more than 20% in just a few days.
The rally has been driven by fresh flows into spot Bitcoin ETFs, expectations of greater liquidity in the United States, a more favourable climate for cryptocurrencies in Washington and a squeeze on traders betting against Bitcoin.
But there is a distinctly Italian twist to the story. While Bitcoin returns to centre stage, Italy’s richest man is someone who built his fortune at the heart of the crypto economy.
At 62, Giancarlo Devasini, chairman of Tether — the company behind USDT, the world’s largest stablecoin — has amassed a fortune estimated by Forbes at $89.3 billion, making him the world’s 23rd-richest person.
His fortune is almost twice the $48.8 billion attributed to Italian businessman Giovanni Ferrero and also well ahead of Andrea Pignataro, whose wealth is estimated at $42.6 billion. It is the first time since 2007 that an Italian other than a member of the Ferrero family has occupied the top spot.
He didn’t get rich by buying Bitcoin
To say that Devasini made his money “with Bitcoin” is striking, but not entirely accurate. His wealth was built through the broader crypto economy, above all through Tether and the ecosystem that has developed around cryptocurrencies.
Tether issues USDT, a stablecoin designed to maintain a value close to one US dollar. It has become a kind of transit currency for the crypto world, allowing market participants to move money quickly between exchanges and digital assets without having to return to the traditional banking system.
This is where the scale becomes enormous. At the end of 2025, there were more than 186 billion USDT in circulation, while Tether reported more than $10 billion in profits for the year.
A large share of its reserves is invested in US Treasury securities. By the end of 2025, Tether’s direct holdings of US Treasuries exceeded $122 billion, while its total exposure, including indirect holdings, was above $141 billion.
Forbes estimates that Devasini owns around 45% of Tether. It is this stake, valued according to the company’s size and profitability, that has propelled his estimated wealth to such heights.
From medicine to digital finance
Born and raised in the Casale Monferrato area of northern Italy, Devasini studied medicine and specialised in plastic surgery. But his medical career did not last long. His path instead led him towards IT, e-commerce and eventually digital currencies.
One of the earliest traces of Devasini’s entry into the Bitcoin world dates back to 2012, when, according to a Financial Times investigation, he appeared on a Bitcoin forum offering to sell CDs and DVDs for bitcoin. At the time, the cryptocurrency was worth a tiny fraction of its current value.
Then came Bitfinex, the cryptocurrency exchange, and above all Tether.
Tether began life as Realcoin in 2014 before being renamed later that year. Devasini, already closely involved with Bitfinex, went on to become a central figure at the stablecoin company.
A few years later, Paolo Ardoino, a computer scientist from the Italian region of Liguria, joined Bitfinex. He is now Tether’s chief executive and has become the public face of the company. Ardoino has said he first met Devasini while working on Bitfinex’s software.
The phantom billionaire
Despite a fortune estimated at almost $90 billion, Devasini has largely remained in the shadows, giving few interviews, making few public appearances and attracting relatively little media exposure.
It is far more often Ardoino who speaks publicly about Tether and its activities. Devasini, by contrast, appears to prefer staying behind the scenes, becoming one of the richest people on the planet without building the kind of public profile associated with many other billionaires.
… and then came Juventus
Devasini’s story came to the fore when Tether entered the world of Italian football.
In February 2025, the company announced the purchase of a stake in Juventus, initially equivalent to more than 5% of voting rights. By April, Tether had increased its stake to more than 10% of the club’s share capital, making it the club’s second-largest shareholder after Exor.
By later that year, Tether’s stake had risen to around 11.5% of the club’s share capital, with the company also gaining representation on Juventus’ board of directors.
The move offered a striking juxtaposition: a company whose chairman built his fortune in the cryptocurrency industry had become a major shareholder in one of the most famous names in Italian football, bringing the world of digital finance into one of the country’s most traditional sports.
And it did not stop there. Tether has also sought to expand its presence in sport and entertainment while diversifying its investments beyond stablecoins.
The business behind Devasini’s $89bn fortune
As Bitcoin resumed its rally, reaching an intraday high of around $79,500, Tether continued to operate on a different level. Its business is not simply a bet on Bitcoin rising in value, but is built around financial infrastructure underpinning a huge share of the crypto market.
This is what sets Devasini’s fortune apart. He is not the archetypal billionaire who bought Bitcoin when it cost next to nothing and then waited for its value to soar. Instead, he helped build one of the key instruments through which money enters, exits and circulates in the cryptocurrency economy.
And while Bitcoin makes headlines each time it breaks another threshold, the “phantom billionaire” from Casale Monferrato remains a far more discreet figure, operating behind a company that handles hundreds of billions of dollars and has, according to Forbes, become valuable enough to turn a little-known Italian businessman into the country’s richest person.
