Tether invests USD 200 million in biotech company Blackrock Neurotech

Stablecoin issuance USDT Tether has invested USD 200 million in Blackrock Neurotech, a biotech company that builds tools to help people with paralysis, dysfunction and neurological disorders.

The investment was made through Tether’s newly formed venture arm, Tether Evo. With this investment, Tether is now the largest shareholder in Blackrock Neurotech, the stablecoin issuance said. Tether added that the investment will help Blackrock Neurotech fund the commercialization and deployment of medical solutions as well as support its research and development efforts.

“Tether’s investments are made by corporate profits,” Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino told The Block. Tether reported a record net profit of USD 2.9 billion in its latest Q4 2023 attestation report released earlier this year.

Ardoino said in a statement: “Blackrock Neurotech is just the beginning of our journey through Tether Evo to engage in projects that redefine the boundaries of what is possible at the intersection of technological innovation and human potential. Tether has long believed in nurturing transformative emerging technologies, and Blackrock Neurotech’s Brain-Computer-Interfaces have the potential to open up new areas of communication, recovery, and cognitive enhancement.”

Tether Evo is the latest in Tether’s recently launched divisions, such as Tether Data, Tether Finance, Tether Power, and Tether Education, which are expanding the company’s focus beyond crypto services.

“Tether Evo stands at the intersection between innovation and human potential, aiming to advance humanity toward a future where technology and human capabilities merge in unprecedented ways,” Tether said.

What is Blackrock Neurotech?

Founded in 2008, Blackrock Neurotech is a pioneer in brain-computer interface (BCI) technology. The company aims to support millions of people worldwide affected by paralysis and neurological disorders. Its tools allow patients to control devices with their thoughts.

In 2016, patient Nathan Copeland used Blackrock’s BCI technology to control a robotic arm holding President Barack Obama’s index finger. With the implant in his sensory cortex, Nathan was even able to “feel” the President’s hand. In other patients, Blackrock’s technology has been used to decode whole words and sentences from brain signals to provide voices to people who have lost the ability to speak due to disease or neuromuscular injury, Tether said.

Blackrock Neurotech was founded at the University of Utah by BCI scientists and pioneers, Drs. Florian Solzbacher and Marcus Gerhardt and is currently based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Solzbacher, co-founder of Blackrock Neurotech, said in a statement: “My life’s dream is to help and rehabilitate people with disability, while advancing technologies that revolutionize healthcare and the world around us. This long-term and ambitious endeavor requires dedicated and visionary partners. With a commitment to finding and nurturing technology that helps many people and moves humanity forward, we couldn’t dream of a better partner than Tether to make our shared vision a reality,” Solzbacher added.

Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs), also known as Brain-Computer Interfaces, are technologies that allow direct communication between the human or animal brain and an external device. BCIs can receive signals from the brain and convert them into control order for the device, or vice versa, send information from the device into the brain.*

BCI has many applications, from support people with mobility disabilities controlling prosthetic limbs, computer pointers, to controlling wheelchairs with just thoughts. It also opens up the possibility of machine control and communication without the need for the usual physical interaction such as pressing a button or touching a screen.