Giancarlo Devasini, a former physician and the chief financial officer of the crypto exchange Bitfinex, is ranked No. 22 on the Forbes 2026 World’s Billionaires list with a net worth of $89.3 billion. He is a co-owner of Tether, issuer of the USDT stablecoin.
Giancarlo Devasini was born in 1964 in Turin, Italy. He graduated from the University of Milan with a degree in medicine in 1990.
Net Worth and Rank
- Forbes 2026 list: No. 22, with $89.3 billion
- Later estimate: Forbes put it at $89.3 billion as of July 2026, according to Wikipedia, which calls him the richest person in Italy
- Source of wealth: an estimated stake of about 45% in Tether, according to reports
From Surgeon to IT
Devasini worked as a cosmetic surgeon but retired from medicine after two years and moved into the computer industry, founding several companies that distributed computer components. He also founded a food delivery business called Delitzia. In 1995 he was accused of product piracy by Microsoft and agreed to pay a fine of one million Italian lire to avoid prosecution. Several of his companies later went bankrupt.
Bitfinex and Tether
- 2012: he took part in founding the Bitfinex trading platform
- 2018: when Bitfinex ran into financial difficulties, he used Tether’s reserves to keep it afloat
- 2021: because of that conflict of interest, he paid an $18.5 million fine in New York to settle a lawsuit
- Tether’s scale: Wikipedia says that in 2026 Tether was highly profitable, paying $10.9 billion in dividends in 2025, with the USDT stablecoin valued at about $184 billion
Lugano
Between 2017 and 2023 Devasini lived in Lugano, Switzerland, where he built links with local politicians. Tether has signed an agreement with the city to promote cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.
Why It Matters
Tether’s stablecoin is the largest dollar-pegged digital asset, and Devasini’s fortune depends on Tether’s profits.
Net worth figures change daily with share prices. Rankings here follow the Forbes 2026 World’s Billionaires list, with wealth measured on March 1, 2026.
Image: The logo of Tether’s USDT stablecoin (file image; Giancarlo Devasini is not pictured). Image: Spuspita / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
