Written by: Connie Loizos
Compiled by: AididiaoJP, Foresight News
If you've been following the news recently, you might have noticed a trend over the past week. In addition to extensive coverage by Fortune and Bloomberg, Paolo Ardoino, the CEO of the stablecoin company Tether, also gave exclusive interviews to Reuters and TechCrunch. Why is the founder of this controversial stablecoin suddenly launching a comprehensive media blitz?
The timing is no coincidence. This week, Tether launched a new product called USAT, its first fully compliant U.S. federal regulated stablecoin, issued through Anchorage Digital Bank, aiming to directly compete with Circle's USDC. Meanwhile, Fidelity Investments also launched its own stablecoin on Wednesday, joining the increasingly fierce battle involving JPMorgan and PayPal.
This marks a significant shift. For years, Paolo Ardoino has stayed away from the U.S., operating overseas to evade investigations and prosecutions. His company has often been labeled as "opaque" and "fraud-ridden," with The Economist even calling it a "money launderer's dream" last summer.
But in this week's video interview, Paolo Ardoino made it clear: those days are over. Tether is now meeting with White House officials, cooperating with the FBI and the Secret Service, and expects USAT to break Circle's monopoly in the U.S. market. (USAT is different from Tether's flagship USDT, which has a global circulation of $187 billion but does not meet new U.S. regulatory requirements.) The 41-year-old Paolo Ardoino, speaking from Tether's office in Lugano, Switzerland, spent over an hour explaining how the company is moving from a crypto player to mainstream acceptance.
Tether's momentum is indeed undeniable. Its USDT is essentially a blockchain-based digital dollar that can circulate cross-border without relying on a single institution, and its market cap now exceeds the sum of all other stablecoins. It has about 536 million users, growing by 30 million per quarter. "Its growth is more like Facebook than a typical fintech app," Paolo Ardoino said.
He believes Tether's first-mover advantage is not only about market dominance but also about bringing change to people in countries with weak currencies. "Over the past five years, the Argentine peso has depreciated by 94.5% against the dollar," he pointed out. "The per capita daily income in Haiti is only $1.34. These people have never been covered by the traditional financial system."
"Tether has created the largest financial inclusion success story in human history," he added.
Paolo Ardoino is aware that more effort is needed to gain further trust. Last summer's report by The Economist didn't help—it revealed that Russian money launderer Yekaterina Zhdanova was涉嫌 (suspected of) using Tether to connect British drug trafficking gangs, Moscow hackers, sanctioned oligarchs, and Russian intelligence personnel.
Mentioning this report, Paolo Ardoino downplayed it, calling the amounts involved "a drop in the ocean." "The vast majority of USDT users are ordinary people," he said. "We have cooperated with nearly 300 law enforcement agencies in over 60 countries. iPhones and Toyotas can also be used by bad actors, but that doesn't mean the products themselves are problematic."
He went further, stating that Tether's technology is more advantageous than cash in tracking illegal activities. "Hundreds of billions of cash flow globally, and it's hard for U.S. law enforcement to trace. But with USDT, we work with the DOJ, FBI, Secret Service, and hundreds of other agencies to freeze funds quickly."
According to him, Tether has frozen $3.5 billion in tokens, most of which belong to "users who were scammed or hacked." For example, in 2023, in a "pig butchering" scam that the traditional financial system failed to detect, Tether identified and froze $225 million "in the blink of an eye." ("Pig butchering" refers to scammers building trust or even online romantic relationships to lure victims into fake investments.)
"We work closely with the FBI and Secret Service, strictly adhering to OFAC sanctions," he said.
It's unclear if critics are satisfied, but Tether has indeed weathered one crisis after another. Three months ago, S&P Global Ratings pointed out that USDT's stability was weak.
Paolo Ardoino dismissed this: "If this is the same S&P that completely failed to predict the subprime mortgage crisis, then I'm proud they think we are 'weak.'"
He mentioned the spring of 2022 when another major stablecoin, TerraLuna, suddenly collapsed, evaporating $40 billion overnight and causing market panic. Hedge funds bet Tether would be next, and users rushed to redeem. "We redeemed $7 billion in 48 hours—10% of reserves; $20 billion in 20 days—25% of reserves. No bank globally could withstand such a run, but we did."
He hinted that another competitor (clearly referring to Circle) performed poorly during the banking crisis. When Silicon Valley Bank collapsed in 2023, Circle's disclosure of a $3 billion exposure caused USDC to briefly depeg. When asked about Circle, often portrayed as a "cleaner alternative," Paolo Ardoino's PR team quickly intervened, and he only reluctantly said, "If you don't bow to Wall Street, others will look at you differently."
Paolo Ardoino emphasized that Tether currently holds $30 billion in excess reserves, far more than needed for redemptions. These reserves are custodied by Cantor Fitzgerald—a Wall Street firm led for over three decades by Howard Lutnick, who became U.S. Secretary of Commerce a year ago. Lutnick has publicly endorsed Tether, and the firm earns substantial fees managing Tether's massive treasury assets, creating an intertwining of business interests and policy influence.
Paolo Ardoino believes Tether is safer than traditional banks. "Banks operate on a 90% fractional reserve system; if you deposit $1 million, only $100,000 stays in the bank, and $900,000 is lent out. Even if Bitcoin goes to zero, the funds we hold are enough to cover all issued USDT."
Massive reserves bring massive profits. Fortune reported that Tether's 2025 profits exceeded $15 billion, mainly from reserve yield—unlike savings accounts, this interest is not shared with USDT holders. When asked if he would consider sharing interest, Paolo Ardoino said that while U.S. users are accustomed to interest, Tether's core users prioritize value preservation.
"The Turkish lira has depreciated 81% against the dollar in five years, the Argentine peso by 94.5%. For someone whose currency depreciates 3% daily, a 4% annualized interest is meaningless. For the rest of the world, a dollar stablecoin is like a savings account; for Americans, it's more like a checking account."
Not sharing profits may also have legal considerations. The CLARITY Act advancing in Congress could prohibit stablecoin issuers from paying interest to holders to prevent deposits from flowing out of traditional banks. If passed, this would solidify Tether's current model while打击 (striking a blow to) competitors like Circle that have tried reward programs.
More Than Stablecoins
Paolo Ardoino's ambitions extend far beyond USDT. In 2020, Tether launched Tether Gold, a gold-backed token with a current circulation of $2.6 billion, equivalent to users holding gold of equal value. But Tether's gold strategy is grander: as revealed in a Bloomberg interview, the company holds about 140 tons of gold, worth approximately $24 billion, making it one of the world's largest private gold holders.
Why launch a gold product? Paolo Ardoino said it's to provide options in an uncertain world. "Gold is humanity's earliest widespread form of money. With blockchain, for the first time, we can make gold not just a store of value but also a medium of exchange."
When the product launched, "we were almost seen as crazy," he recalled. Since then, Tether has been buying gold at a rate of 1-2 tons per week, with Ardoino calling it "building one of the world's largest gold central banks."
But the company's investment in AI reveals an even grander vision. About nine months ago, Tether launched Qvac, a decentralized AI platform, named after Asimov's short story 'The Last Question'—which Paolo Ardoino considers "the greatest sci-fi work."
His positioning of Qvac aligns with USDT: serving the overlooked. "USDT never targeted JPMorgan's clients; we serve those abandoned by traditional financial system," he said, adding that centralized AI platforms would also miss billions of users unable to afford subscriptions.
"If they can't afford a $150 annual bank account, they certainly can't afford expensive AI platforms." Qvac will be able to run locally on smartphones. Ardoino expects that within three to five years, today's high-performance smartphones will be普及 (popularized) in Africa and South America, covering 80% of AI use cases. "USDT will power the world's largest decentralized AI platform."
Even so, Qvac is just one part of a grand strategy. Fortune reported that Tether has invested over $1 billion in German AI robotics company Neura, $775 million in social media platform Rumble, and hundreds of millions more in satellites, data centers, agriculture, and other fields. The magazine described Tether as transforming into an entity "similar to a sovereign wealth fund."
From the outside perspective, these investments—including a stake in the Juventus football club—seem unrelated. But Paolo Ardoino insists they are intrinsically consistent: "Tether's purpose is 'stability.' We invest in land, livestock, agriculture, modern technology, gold... the common goal is to ensure Tether can持续 (continuously) serve as the cornerstone of our users' world."
He描绘 (depicted) an interconnected system: digitizing agriculture, revolutionizing gold markets, peer-to-peer communication. "We want to build a company that stands the test of time, a social impact enterprise that changes the lives of hundreds of millions, providing them with 'stability' they never had."
When asked about political risks—if the next U.S. administration views Tether as a threat like the previous one—Paolo Ardoino said they are prepared.
"I hope financial inclusion, connecting 536 million people to the dollar system, is a bipartisan concern. This requires education."
