Giancarlo Devasini between the crypto world and Juventus: when digital billions conquer football

In the European football sector, where Gulf petrodollars have reigned supreme for decades, something unprecedented is happening. Not a new sheikh, not a sovereign fund, but the powerhouse of the cryptocurrency world. Giancarlo Devasini, a 61-year-old entrepreneur who built an empire in the digital currency industry, has entered Juventus by acquiring a minority stake of 5%, worth 47 million euros. This move signals the gradual transfer of wealth from traditional financial centers to the new rulers of the digital economy.

Giancarlo Devasini’s Transformation: From Surgeon to Digital Billionaire

Devasini’s story embodies one of the most fascinating phenomena of our time. Before becoming the second-to-last richest man in Italy with an estimated net worth of over 9 billion euros, Giancarlo Devasini was a plastic surgeon. His transition into the fintech sector was not just a career climb but a true entrepreneurial metamorphosis. Through Tether, the company he founded in El Salvador, Devasini created the most widely used stablecoin globally: a digital asset pegged to the dollar’s value that has revolutionized how capital moves within blockchain ecosystems.

Tether: The Silent Giant of the Digital Economy

Tether’s numbers tell a story of remarkable growth. With an approximate trading volume of 141 billion dollars and over 350 million users worldwide, Tether forms the backbone of much of the global cryptocurrency trade. This figure is even more impressive considering that, according to some analysts, Devasini’s company holds more US bonds than the combined national reserves of Germany and Australia. Tether has not remained confined to the crypto ecosystem: in recent years, it has diversified its investments, attracting prominent partners like Howard Lutnick, a leading figure in American finance and former Secretary of Commerce under Donald Trump, who has invested roughly 600 million dollars in convertible bonds of the company. Notably, there was also an investment of 775 million dollars in Rumble, the social media platform that attracts a user base aligned with libertarian and conservative movements worldwide.

The Paradoxical Discretion of a Global Power Player

What is most surprising in Giancarlo Devasini’s biography is the stark contrast between his immense financial power and the extraordinary privacy that characterizes his private life. While controlling billions through Tether, Devasini maintained a surprisingly modest lifestyle: in Lugano, the city where he resided, he rented a three-room apartment for 1,400 euros a month, a figure far from exorbitant for one of the sector’s magnates. He rarely grants interviews to the media, preferring to operate in the shadows, fueling the myth of the wise invisible hand guiding the digital economy.

A Symbolic Return to Turin: From Algorithm to Stadium

The acquisition of a stake in Juventus takes on a nearly poetic significance within Devasini’s biography. Turin is his hometown, the place from which the man who built one of the largest digital fortunes on the planet hails. Today, with his infiltration into the club’s capital through Tether, Giancarlo Devasini not only returns physically to his Piedmont roots but does so bringing with him the new power: that of virtual wealth, decentralized finance, and borderless economy that characterizes the crypto world. It is an operation that transcends mere financial investment; it is a symbol of the epochal change sweeping through European football, where digital money begins to sit at the same tables as traditional finance.