Tether’s Paolo Ardoino Says USDT Stablecoin Issuer ‘Has Been Through Hell’, Is Cheered On at Cantor Conference

Attendees clapped and cheered when Paolo Ardoino, the general public face of maybe most influential firm in crypto, entered the stage at the Cantor Fitzgerald Global Technology Conference in New York on Wednesday.

Ardoino stood out from the gang, not for his wealth however for his alternative of apparel. While others dressed to impress, he opted for a laid-back look — a lightweight blue Ralph Lauren polo and grey khakis — regardless of probably having the deepest pockets within the room.

“This is my first trip to America,” he began off saying. “It’s beautiful. I feel very welcomed.”

Ardoino certainly averted the nation for a very long time. The Italy-born laptop scientist till just lately primarily centered Tether’s operations on growing areas, with monetary freedom because the said objective.

Another motive could possibly be that Tether has been underneath scrutiny from business leaders in addition to U.S. authorities for a while, together with the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYFSD).

That’s modified. Ardoino has been on a tour of the U.S. over the previous week, posting pictures of himself on the U.S. Capitol Building steps in Washington D.C. on Thursday and collaborating in a fireplace chat with Strike CEO Jack Mallers at a Tuesday occasion organized by the Bitcoin Policy Institute.

The firm, which in response to Ardoino is run by solely 150 staff throughout 50 nations, settled expenses with the CFTC and an NYDFS inquiry in 2021. There have been quite a few experiences of an ongoing Department of Justice investigation into the stablecoin issuer as nicely over the previous few years.

“We’ve been through hell,” Ardoino informed attendees at the convention. “People were saying that if I came to the U.S. I’d be arrested … They will try to scare you off.”

“We’re still here, right?”

After a rundown of Tether’s earlier success within the stablecoin enterprise — the corporate reportedly made a $13 billion revenue in 2024 and its stablecoin, USDT, holds over 60% of market share amongst stablecoins — Ardoino went on to current present initiatives that the corporate is engaged on, together with its efforts in schooling, AI and real-world asset (RWA) tokenization.

“The outlook for this year is wonderful as well,” Ardoino mentioned.

Ardoino’s U.S. journey got here at a time when the U.S. legislature is transferring ahead to manage the $200 billion and quickly rising stablecoin market. Tether is dominating the asset class with its $143 billion USDT cryptocurrency, adopted by U.S.-based competitor Circle with its $58 billion USDC token.

While Tether is an offshore firm — it just lately introduced its intention to determine its headquarters in El Salvador — and has but to point out curiosity in formally getting into the U.S. crypto market, its ties to the U.S. are multifaceted.

The agency is likely one of the largest patrons of U.S. debt, holding almost $100 billion price of U.S. Treasuries and government-backed securities as a reserve asset for its USDT token. If it have been a rustic, it could be among the many prime 20 U.S. debt holders. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent mentioned throughout a White House digital asset summit on Friday that stablecoins are key to preserving the U.S. greenback because the dominant reserve foreign money on the planet, a line of argument that Ardoino touted a number of events earlier than.

The firm additionally gained a robust ally within the Trump administration in Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, former CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, the Wall Street funding agency that manages Tether’s U.S. Treasury holdings. The Wall Street Journal reported that Cantor can be invested in Tether’s holding firm, whereas Lutnick mentioned throughout his affirmation listening to that Cantor holds Tether convertible bonds however has no fairness stake.

Ardoino, in an interview with CoinDesk final 12 months, mentioned that the agency additionally onboarded U.S. companies such because the FBI and Secret Service to its platform in an effort to fight illicit actions.

On the funding entrance, Tether grew to become a significant shareholder with a $775 million funding in U.S.-listed video sharing platform Rumble, fashionable amongst U.S. conservative and right-wing customers. With Tether’s backing, Rumble CEO Chris Pavloski laid out plans to introduce a crypto pockets and help funds with USDT, BTC and Tether’s gold-backed token XAUT.

Pavloski repeatedly known as Ardoino whereas he was on stage Wednesday.