Ex-Tether CIO Richard Heathcote explores partial sale of his

Former Tether chief investment officer Richard Heathcote is reportedly seeking to sell part of his 1.26% ownership stake in Tether, with the process involving only a portion of that holding. The move would be a rare private-market ownership datapoint for the issuer behind USDT as European distribution tightens under MiCA-linked delistings.

Key Takeaways

Richard Heathcote is reportedly exploring a sale of part of his 1.26% equity stake in Tether, with only a portion of the holding involved.
Heathcote stepped down as Tether’s chief investment officer in March and shifted into an advisory role after overseeing the firm’s investment portfolio.
USDT’s circulating supply is roughly $184 billion, representing about 59% of the stablecoin market, per DefiLlama data.
MiCA-authorized platforms in Europe have been delisting USDT after Tether opted not to comply with the EU framework, and Revolut has announced it will remove USDT.

Heathcote Explores a Partial Sale of His 1.26% Tether Stake

Richard Heathcote, Tether’s former chief investment officer, is seeking to sell part of his 1.26% ownership stake in the stablecoin issuer, based on a report that cited people familiar with the matter. The same reporting indicated the contemplated transaction would cover only part of that 1.26% position.

Heathcote stepped down from the CIO role in March and moved into an advisory position after overseeing Tether’s investment portfolio. No transaction terms were provided in the report, including valuation, buyer identity, timing, venue, or the exact slice of the stake being marketed.

Why a Secondary Stake Sale Matters for USDT Market Structure

Tether is privately held, and CEO Paolo Ardoino has said the company does not need to go public. That makes any credible secondary sale attempt by a former top executive a rare datapoint for how private-market participants might price exposure to the dominant stablecoin issuer.

For traders, the relevance is less about corporate gossip and more about plumbing. USDT is still the settlement rail across spot and derivatives venues, and perceived issuer risk can translate into changes in margin preferences, collateral haircuts, and cross-exchange flows. With USDT’s circulating supply at roughly $184 billion and about 59% of the stablecoin market, per DefiLlama, even small shifts in confidence tend to show up quickly in liquidity conditions.

MiCA Delistings Add EU Distribution Pressure on USDT

The reported stake sale intersects with a concrete distribution headwind in Europe. USDT has been delisted by a growing number of MiCA-authorized platforms after Tether opted not to comply with the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation.

Revolut announced this month it will remove USDT from its platform. The packet does not quantify how many venues have delisted USDT or how quickly liquidity is migrating, but the direction is clear: EU-compliant access points are narrowing, which can fragment stablecoin liquidity by region and push more flow into alternative rails.

Signals Traders Can Track From Here: Deal Terms, Buyers, and EU Off-Ramps

The first signal is whether deal details surface: the implied valuation, the buyer’s profile, timing, and the exact portion of the 1.26% stake being sold. A strategic buyer versus a financial buyer would carry very different read-throughs for perceived issuer risk and governance expectations.

Second, traders should track additional announcements from MiCA-authorized platforms on delistings or restrictions beyond Revolut’s planned removal. Each incremental off-ramp matters because it changes where EU-based flow can warehouse dollar exposure.

Third, any updated public statements from Tether leadership on IPO intentions are worth monitoring. Ardoino’s prior stance that Tether does not need to go public sets a baseline, so any shift in tone would be a signal that private-market dynamics or regulatory constraints are tightening.

Reading the Ownership Signal Against Europe’s USDT Squeeze

I treat this as a market-structure story disguised as an ownership headline. Because Tether is privately held and management has downplayed IPO needs, a reported secondary sale by a former CIO is one of the few ways price discovery can leak into the open, even if the final terms never become public.

The threshold that matters is whether the stake sale produces a clean, credible valuation signal while EU delistings continue to reduce compliant distribution. If those two vectors line up, the setup starts to look structural rather than narrative-driven, because it would pressure USDT’s European access at the same time the market learns how private capital is pricing Tether exposure.

Sources

Cointelegraph