This week on StrictlyVC Download, Connie Loizos speaks with Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, the company behind USDT, the world's largest stablecoin. With 536 million users worldwide, Tether has quietly become one of the most powerful players in cryptocurrencies. And now it has evolved far beyond stablecoins.
Ardoino is transforming Tether into what he calls a “stable company” with bold bets on decentralized AI, agriculture, telecommunications, and gold-backed tokens. In this conversation, he explains how Tether generates billions of dollars in profits from its holdings in U.S. Treasuries, why the company is building an AI platform that runs locally on smartphones for emerging markets, and how its relationship with U.S. regulators has changed dramatically.
He also discusses Tether's geographic expansion, particularly in El Salvador and across Latin America, and argues that all of these seemingly disparate investments, from cattle ranching to brain-computer interfaces, are part of an interlocking strategy to serve billions of people left behind by traditional finance.