Tether, the issuer behind the nearly $150 billion USDT stablecoin, has finalized the purchase of a 70% stake in the Latin American agricultural firm Adecoagro (AGRO), which has a market cap of nearly a billion dollars.

Tether initially invested $100 million in Adecoagro in September 2024 for a 9.8% stake, then offered to increase it to 51% in February, and finally raised it to control 70% in March.

Read more: Tether’s $100M Investment in LatAm Agriculture Firm May Be a Tokenization Play

This majority stake gives Tether control over one of the region’s most prominent food and bioenergy producers. Adecoagro owns sugar mills, rice farms, dairy operations, and renewable energy assets across Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay.

Tether said it aims to help scale Adecoagro’s output while aligning the company with its mission of fostering “economic freedom” through decentralized finance and investment in underserved markets.

The move might be part of Tether’s ambition to tokenize real-world assets, as it launched its asset tokenization service Hadron last year. The platform was designed to simplify the process of converting a wide range of real-world assets, including bonds, commodities, stocks, other stablecoins, and loyalty points into digital tokens on blockchain rails.

Read more: Tether Unveils New Platform to Simplify Asset Tokenization for Businesses, Nation-States

«By aligning with in Adecoagro’s proven expertise in agriculture and renewable energy, we are taking another concrete step toward bridging traditional industries with the future of decentralized finance and economic empowerment,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether.

Following the deal, Adecoagro’s board was also reshuffled. Five members stepped down and were replaced by executives tied to Tether and its strategic goals. Juan Sartori, a Uruguayan businessman with political and agricultural interests, took over as chairman.

In the past year, Tether has launched ventures in bitcoin mining, AI, and encrypted communications. AGRO’s shares were up 2.6% on Wednesday.

Read more: Tether’s $100M Investment in LatAm Agriculture Firm May Be a Tokenization Play

Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.

There was a bit of volatility in crypto on Wednesday, but most of the market continued the weeks’ trend of trading in a very tight range.

Shortly after the close of the U.S. stock market, bitcoin (BTC) was changing hands at $94,700, down just 0.4% over the past 24 hours. BTC was lower by nearly 2% at one point alongside a sizable early decline in stocks.

Hit harder during the early decline, altcoins also rebounded, but underperformed bitcoin The CoinDesk 20 slumped 2% in the last 24 hours, with litecoin (LTC), ripple (XRP), avalanche (AVAX) and chainlink (LINK) all dropping roughly 4%.

Crypto equities were modestly lower, but bitcoin miner Hut 8 (HUT) was a notable underperformer, falling 5.7%.

The major U.S. stock averages tumbled 2% or more early in the session following less than stellar economic news. They retook ground throughout the day though, with the S&P 500 closing slightly in the green and the Nasdaq dipping just 0.1%.

The continuing string of lame economic data, however, has not seemed to deter U.S. President Trump from his tariff policies.

“Somebody said all the shelves are going to be open,” Trump said early Wednesday. “Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally. … They have ships that are loaded up with stuff, much of which we don’t need.”

Robinhood (HOOD) topped tempered analyst estimates in the first quarter of 2025, reporting adjusted earnings per share of $0.37 against forecasts for $0.33.

The popular trading platform reported $927 million in total revenue, down from $1 billion in the fourth-quarter, but beating Street expectations of $920.1 million. Crypto-related revenue was $252 million, up 100% from year-ago levels.

Transaction-based revenue of $583 million slipped 13% from $672 million in the fourth quarter.

Robinhood had seen explosive numbers in the fourth quarter, in part thanks to a surge in crypto trading amid euphoria stemming from U.S. President Donald Trump’s presidential win. But the froth in crypto and traditional markets quickly reversed following Trump’s inauguration.

The company added $500 million to its existing $1 billion share repurchase program. To date, HOOD has bought back $667 million, leaving another$833 million under the authorization.

Robinhood’s monthly crypto volumes have historically shown high correlation with Coinbase’s (COIN) retail volumes, but Barclays analyst Benjamin Buddish believes the COIN will have seen a less meaningful decline in trading volumes in the first quarter.

Coinbase is reporting earnings on May 8 and is expected to post a slight decline in revenue to $2.1 billion from $2.27 billion in the previous quarter, while exchange volume is expected to have dropped to $403.8 from $439 billion, according to analysts at FactSet.

HOOD shares are down 2.2% in after hours action.