Rumble Stock Jumps After Stablecoin Giant Tether Buys 1 Million Shares

USDT-USD -0.01% RUM +3.99%

Shares in publicly traded video streaming platform Rumble are up more than 14% on Monday amid news that stablecoin giant Tether acquired another 1 million shares in the firm, valued around $5.75 million at the time of Friday’s disclosure.

Data pulled from a recent SEC filing for Tether Holdings shows the firm acquired 1,063,670 additional shares of RUM in three separate transactions last week, at prices ranging between $5.38 and $5.46. 

USDT issuer Tether now owns nearly 104.4 million Rumble shares based on available SEC filings, valuing its stake in the video firm around $680 million as RUM recently changed hands at $6.51. 

Last year, Tether announced it would invest $775 million in the YouTube rival, granting it more than 103 million shares at $7.50 apiece. RUM also spiked at the time of that announcement, moving as high as $10.57, or around a 40% jump at the time. 

But even with today’s gains, shares have fallen steadily since January, resulting in nearly a 50% loss year-to-date. 

Beyond Tether’s initial investment, the pair have been connected more recently, as well. 

Earlier this month, Tether agreed to back a deal that allowed Rumble to agree to a deal to acquire AI and high-performance-computing firm Northern Data. Tether also will buy $150 million worth of GPUs from Rumble to help “co-create tools that empower content creators worldwide,” and invest up to $100 million in advertising via Rumble to boost usage of its crypto wallet.

YouTube Rival Rumble Teams With Tether to Add Bitcoin Tipping for Creators

In October, the firms’ respective CEOs appeared onstage together at the Plan B Forum in Lugano, Switzerland to announce they were working together to add a crypto tipping feature, which would allow Rumble users to tip creators with Bitcoin and USDT. 

Rumble’s crypto roots have been deepening since the firm announced the creation of a Bitcoin reserve last November, following in the footsteps of Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy). 

At the end of Q3, the firm reported it held 210.82 BTC, now valued around $18.5 million. 

Bitcoin is up around 1.9% in the last 24 hours, recently trading at $88,392.