Stablecoin issuer Tether is ramping up its push to drive cryptocurrency adoption across Eastern Europe through additional investment in Georgia-based crypto payment platform CityPay.io. The new funding aims to accelerate CityPay's expansion into other regional markets like Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Tether officially announced the follow-on investment on May 8th, building upon its initial stake in CityPay from 2023 which marked one of the earliest moves by a major stablecoin company into the crypto payments sector. The two firms have been collaborating closely since, with CityPay integrating Tether for merchant payments facilitated through the Polygon blockchain last October.

The deepening strategic partnership coincides with CityPay's rapid growth enabling crypto acceptance at over 600 locations across Georgia, including major brands like Wendy's and Radisson Hotels where customers can pay with assets like Bitcoin. CityPay plans to roll out its own crypto e-wallet and debit card solutions within the next two years.

According to Tether, the new capital injection will "further strengthen CityPay's expansion into Eastern Europe" with ambitions to establish over 500,000 additional crypto payment terminals across the targeted regional markets of Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

"Our previous collaboration with CityPay yielded exciting results expanding crypto usage in Georgia," stated Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino. "With this second investment, we aim to drive adoption of cutting-edge technologies disrupting traditional payment systems across Eastern Europe."

Tether's heightened focus on the Eastern European region aligns with the area's emergence as an institutional crypto hub. The stablecoin firm signed an agreement with Georgia's government in June 2023 outlining cooperation to develop Bitcoin infrastructure and peer-to-peer technologies within the country.

Georgia in particular has positioned itself as one of the world's most crypto-friendly jurisdictions, actively courting major industry firms like Binance which launched a regional blockchain hub there in 2023. The nation is well-known for its dense network of Bitcoin ATMs facilitating crypto-to-cash conversions.

For its part, Tether has delivered record growth and profitability recently, reporting over $4.5 billion in Q1 2024 revenue driven primarily by its Bitcoin and precious metals holdings. The company's market-leading USDT stablecoin maintains a roughly $70 billion market capitalization, accounting for the majority of trading volumes across crypto exchanges worldwide.

As crypto infrastructures mature within Eastern European markets, Tether's latest strategic investment into CityPay.io signals its determination to cultivate real-world use cases and consumer adoption as key drivers for USDT and other stablecoins' proliferation across the region's developing digital payments landscape.