Tether Backs EFY Finance to Push USDT Payments Into 17 Countries

Tether invested in EFY Finance as part of the company's seed round, it said on 13 October, money aimed at institutional use of USDT and USAT across Latin America. EFY Finance builds stablecoin cross-border payments, accounts and digital asset custody for the region, and already connects digital dollars to local bank accounts.

For someone holding USDT, the change is where the token can be cashed out, not what backs it. EFY offers on- and off-ramps for USDT and USAT, OTC services, wallets and cards across more than 12 currencies and corridors, with settlement to local bank accounts in 17 countries. USAT, the newer of the two, is issued by Anchorage Digital Bank N.A., a federally chartered US bank, with Tether's support. Tether's release gave no investment amount, no valuation for EFY Finance and no total for the seed round.

Six of the 17 Countries Have Names

Tether names the markets where EFY already has a meaningful presence: Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, El Salvador, Panama and Ecuador. The other 11 countries its settlement network reaches are not listed. EFY's own site goes further and claims 19 countries of operation, a number that appears nowhere in Tether's release and is not reconciled with the 17 anywhere in what the two companies published. Read as 17 settlement countries against 19 markets and rails, both figures could be true, but neither company has said that, so the full list stays unconfirmed.

What EFY Claims About Its Own Business

EFY Finance's own site lists 19 countries, more than 12 currencies and more than $2.5 billion in transaction volume, and names Tether and Orbit Ventures as backers. It says volume grew from $15 million in 2023 to $1.1 billion in 2025. Tether's release adds that EFY holds a Digital Asset Service Provider licence in El Salvador and serves more than 25,000 active individual and business accounts. EFY says its blockchain settlement runs on the TRC-20 and ERC-20 networks, which carry most USDT in circulation.

The volume figures come from the company, so they are claims rather than audited numbers. The licence is a single-country one as well. Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador set their own rules on stablecoins, and a licence granted in El Salvador does not travel with the token.

Follow the Money

What Tether paid is not in the release. The closest recent comparison is its reported $20 million investment in the Argentine digital bank Ualá in July 2026. Tether's release also cites Chainalysis, which put Latin American cryptocurrency transaction volume at nearly $1.5 trillion between July 2022 and June 2025.

Across Latin America, the US dollar is a lifeline against inflation and capital controls.

That is chief executive Paolo Ardoino, who said USDT and USAT are how people reach the dollar, and that regulated infrastructure and banking connections are the part still missing. Andrés Tobón, EFY's co-founder and CEO, said Tether as a strategic investor would help "expand institutional access to USDT and USAT across the region".

What Would Confirm the Story

Stablecoin payment deals are easy to announce and slow to show up in volumes. The disclosures worth watching are EFY's transaction numbers past the $1.1 billion it claims for 2025, and whether settlement moves beyond those 17 countries. Stablecoin payment and card programmes have been pitched at far larger scale, including a plan to reach more than 100 countries, and announcement size has not been the hard part. Distribution is. EFY's 25,000 accounts are the distribution Tether is paying for, at a price neither company disclosed.