By Ryan Weeks, Anna Irrera and Natasha Voase | Updated on Jun 11, 2026 at 05:11 PM
Tether Holdings SA Chief Business Officer Benjamin Habbel has stepped down nine months after joining the stablecoin giant, where he was in charge of expanding the firm and its portfolio of investments.
Habbel will return to Limestone Capital, the private equity firm he co-founded, as managing partner, he said in an email. Tether is an investor in Limestone, which manages over $1 billion in assets, Habbel said. He added that the two firms are planning to deepen their partnership. Limestone’s portfolio includes real estate hospitality brands Aethos and Eterniti, according to its website.
“As Tether steadily expands its real estate business, this is where Ben’s expertise will have the greatest impact, and he will continue to work closely with us to develop the portfolio,” a spokesperson for Tether said in a statement.
The move comes as Tether is in the process of recruiting a real estate portfolio manager to handle its own roughly $1 billion in real estate investments, according to a job posting on its website. The portfolio includes third-party managed funds, co-investment special purpose vehicles and some directly held assets, the post reads. It has a special focus on commercial real estate, particularly hospitality.
Habbel’s departure marks the latest senior staffing change at Tether. Richard Heathcote stepped down from his role as chief investment officer in March and was replaced by Zachary Lyons. Around that time, the company let go of two precious metals traders who had joined from HSBC Holdings Plc just months earlier to help manage Tether’s vast gold holdings.
Read More: Tether’s Gold Hoard Nears $20 Billion as Buying Continues
Habbel arrived at Tether just as the company prepared to build its presence in the US and continue growing its portfolio of investments. The firm is the issuer of USDT, the world’s largest stablecoin with around $187 billion in circulation.
Stablecoins — cryptocurrencies pegged to a traditional asset like the US dollar — have grown in popularity since the US adopted legislation governing them almost a year ago. Some financial firms are launching their own stablecoins, touting them as a faster way to facilitate payments.
Tether, which reported more than $10 billion in profit last year with a staff of just around 300, has been investing earnings from the multibillion-dollar reserves backing USDT into deals spanning everything from humanoid robots to agricultural land in Latin America.
Read More: Tether’s $193 Billion Stockpile Fuels Doomsday Investing Spree
Earlier in his career, Habbel held leadership roles at Alphabet Inc.’s Google, where he helped scale the Android operating system and Google Maps, Tether said when it announced his hiring.