Inside Tether: The $120B Stablecoin Powerhouse with CEO Paolo Ardoino

Tether (USDT) CEO Paolo Ardoino, in a major interview with Tom Farley, discussed Tether's growth and plans. Tether is the world's largest stablecoin with a market cap of almost 120 billion dollars.

CEO Bullish, owner of CoinDesk, spoke to Ardoin on the Coindesk Spotlight podcast about what he called "one of the most profitable businesses in the world."

What is Tether?

Tether is a cryptocurrency created in 2014 by Bitcoin enthusiasts. Today, it is the largest stablecoin in the world.

Tether is tied to the dollar, with a 1:1 exchange rate. Unlike other popular cryptocurrencies, its value is stable, which is the primary idea behind its creation.

Tether started as a cryptocurrency, but today, it is the largest stablecoin used as a digital dollar in various transactions.

Tether - more than cryptocurrency

However, Tether has become more than a cryptocurrency. The company's CEO explains its fields of activity, with education as a key goal.

“We invest in Bitcoin, we invest in renewable energy, and we invest in AI. We have an unstoppable educational arm. We believe education is the key and must be available to everyone and everywhere. We have different initiatives, and with the founder Giancarlo, we like to focus on certain areas".

Why Tether is better than all other stablecoins?

Why is Tether worth 120 billion today, and all other stablecoins combined, maybe a third of that value?

Bullish CEO ii CoinDesk owner Tom Farley, who has significant USDT holdings, wondered this.

"When you make something, whether it's a spoon, you have to think about who your client or user will be. One of the interesting things about USDT is that it works better outside the United States. USDT is a digital dollar used by over 300 million people. The US has 15 different transport layers of the US dollar. You have banks, credit cards, debit cards. You have Venmo, PayPal, CashApp and many others. There is a lot of competition. Selling USDT to an American would be like selling ice to an Eskimo. You can try it, but he doesn't need it".

"We were thinking, who needs a dollar? Even outside the US, there is a large market of five billion who live in inflation, and 3 billion don't even have a bank account. The banking system requires 50 and 150 dollars per year. In poor countries, it's almost impossible, for example, in Africa where the salary is 60 dollars a month".

USDT and Tron

More than half of USDT, 61 billion to be exact, is issued on the Tron blockchain and 54.3 billion on Ethereum, the blockchain most associated with decentralized finance (DeFi). Arduino explains why:

"National currencies started falling during the covid pandemic. People wanted to protect themselves. Also, certain markets cannot pay transaction fees of five or six dollars per transaction, for example, for Ethereum. Tron, for example, charges a fee of 20 cents. How can a man who works for $1.34 a day in Haiti pay $5 in transaction fees?

Tether is here for the common man.

“We are not trying to sell our stablecoin to banks or rich people. Our main focus is man, the people on the street, those 5 billion people. They will be your loyal customers, and that is very powerful. We gave people a chance to see us as a way out of the broken financial system. People today can keep dollars in their phones, and it's a game changer”!

"You helped them and gave them salvation when it was most difficult for them. You gave them the solution to have a savings account".

In some countries of the world, Tether is used as an alternative to volatile national currencies, thus enabling safe savings for the common man.

USDT is the Dollar's best friend!

If Tether were a country, the data shows that it would have holdings equal to Germany and come very close to South Korea. Those are staggering numbers.

"We added resilience to the ownership of the US Dollar, so now we don't have one country, one decision maker that can sell hundreds of billions of T-bills at once. USDT and Tether are the best friends of the US Dollar”.

Security of Tether - nobody like USDT

There is a lot of talk about the use of USDT, its security, and its abuse.

"I like to talk about these topics because they are important and rarely talked about. As far as illicit activity is concerned, we work with over 140 law enforcement agencies worldwide, in more than 40 countries. Tell me one bank that works with 140 law enforcement agencies across 40 states. That is impossible".

"Blockchain technology makes everything precise. We cooperate with the authorities in chain analysis with the best tools for ecosystem monitoring. Over the past ten years, we have created the best technology. We cooperate with the FBI and US Secret Services. We helped to freeze 1.5 billion. We are very open, and anyone who uses USDT maliciously is stupid and will be caught". Says the CEO of Tether.

USDT conspiracy theories

Ardoino also announced that the financial service firm Cantor Fitzgerald manages most of the money, with the bank's CEO Howard Lutnick regularly vouching for the stablecoin issuer.

On unprofessional speculations that the company does not have sufficient backing for USDT, Ardoino points out:

"Whoever believes in these and similar conspiracy theories should leave his mother's basement as soon as possible"!

The Polymarket contract shows how safe Tether is, with only a 4% chance of its declaring insolvency in 2024.

In comparison, the chance of the market's belief that nuclear weapons will be used this year is 9%.