Giancarlo Devasini (born

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

) is an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

businessman and physician. He is the chief financial officer of

Bitfinex Bitfinex is a cryptocurrency exchange owned and operated by iFinex Inc, and is registered in the British Virgin Islands. Bitfinex was founded in 2012. It was originally a peer-to-peer bitcoin exchange, and later added support for other cryptocu ...

, a

cryptocurrency exchange A cryptocurrency exchange, or a digital currency exchange (DCE), is a business that allows customers to trade cryptocurrencies or digital currencies for other assets, such as conventional fiat money or other digital currencies. Exchanges may acce ...

, and co-founder of Tether (a

stablecoin A stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency where the value of the digital asset is supposed to be pegged to a reference asset, which is either fiat money, exchange-traded commodities (such as precious metals or industrial metals), or another cry ...

). According to reports, he owns a 47 percent stake in Tether, which is why his net worth was estimated at US$22.4 billion by ''

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'' in April 2025.

Life

Born in Turin, Giancarlo Devasini graduated from the

University of Milan The University of Milan (; ), officially abbreviated as UNIMI, or colloquially referred to as La Statale ("the State niversity), is a public university, public research university in Milan, Italy. It is one of the largest universities in Eu ...

with a degree in medicine in 1990 and then began working as a cosmetic surgeon, performing plastic surgery. However, he retired from medicine after two years and started working in the IT industry, where he founded several companies specializing in the distribution of computer components. He also founded a food delivery company called ''Delitzia'', which included a blog about organic food. In 1995, he was accused of product piracy by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

. To avoid prosecution and continue his business, he agreed to pay a fine of one million Italian liras. Several of his companies later went bankrupt. Devasini later discovered the world of cryptocurrencies and was involved in the founding of the Bitfinex trading platform in 2012. Two years later, he founded the stablecoin Tether together with Paolo Ardoino, an Italian computer scientist living in Switzerland., which subsequently became the largest stablecoin by market capitalization, but sparked controversy over its backing, the cover-up of losses, and possible market manipulation. When Bitfinex, the trading platform associated with Tether, ran into financial difficulties in 2018, Devasini used Tether's reserves to keep Bitfinex afloat. Due to this conflict of interest, he paid a fine of US$18.5 million in New York in 2021 to settle a lawsuit. Devasini is considered to be a reclusive figure. Between 2017 and 2023, he lived in the city of

Lugano Lugano ( , , ; ) is a city and municipality within the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. It is the largest city in both Ticino and the Italian-speaking region of southern Switzerland. Lugano has a population () of , and an u ...

Ticino Ticino ( ), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino, is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eight districts ...

, where he ran his billion-dollar business from an office above a sports bar and established contacts with local politicians. Tether has also signed a memorandum of understanding with the city of Lugano to promote cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Devasini, Giancarlo 20th-century Italian physicians 21st-century Italian businesspeople Living people 1964 births Italian emigrants to Switzerland Businesspeople from Turin University of Milan alumni