Bankless: Tether’s big move

Author: William M. Peaster Source: Bankless Translation: Shan Ouba, Golden Finance

According to DefiLlama data, Tether's stablecoin USDT currently has a market value of more than $156 billion, more than twice that of its closest competitor, Circle's USDC (more than $60 billion).

In this market-dominant situation, two major news this month make this situation even more intriguing:

• Circle's blockbuster IPO: The stock price soared after listing, and the market value reached $60 billion.

• GENIUS Stablecoin Act advances in the US Congress: The bill establishes specific standards for stablecoin issuers, and USDT does not yet fully meet these standards.

Against this backdrop, Bankless interviewed Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino to discuss the changing regulatory environment and the rise of major competitors in the US market.

Against this backdrop of new laws and market competition, how will Tether, the world's largest stablecoin, respond? What new moves is the company currently planning? Here are 5 highlights from the interview that are worth paying attention to.

Huge profits

Ardoino said Tether made a profit of $13.7 billion last year.

This figure puts Tether among the most profitable companies in the world, surpassing Morgan Stanley ($13.4 billion), Mastercard ($12.9 billion) and Citigroup ($12.5 billion).

A large part of the profit comes from harvesting the yield of US Treasury bonds - Tether is currently one of the largest buyers of US Treasury bonds in the world.

GENIUS Act Compliance

Although USDT has not yet fully met the core standards of the GENIUS Act for stablecoin issuers, Ardoino said that Tether will find a way forward.

He revealed in the interview that Tether will make USDT compliant with the GENIUS Act standards as a foreign issuer through the "equivalence" path. At the same time, Tether also plans to launch a new stablecoin designed specifically for the US market, focusing on programmability and practicality.

Ardoino bluntly stated that the future of the US market is more like a "race to the bottom" of profit margins, and emerging markets have greater growth potential for stablecoins - this statement is not without hints that Tether is better than Circle in the future market story.

4 trillion US dollar market value?

Although Circle was sought after by Wall Street after its IPO, Tether has no intention of listing for financing. Ardoino made it clear that Tether does not need external capital and the founding team has no intention of exiting.

He welcomed Circle's listing and mentioned that Circle's current extremely high price-to-earnings ratio will only make Tether more convincing - according to Circle's current price-to-earnings ratio, if Tether is also listed, its market value is expected to exceed 4 trillion US dollars.

Mining Advantages

Ardoino said that Tether will soon become one of the world's largest Bitcoin miners. The company currently holds more than 100,000 bitcoins on its balance sheet, and getting involved in mining is the natural next step to protect and increase the value of these assets and maintain network security.

Ardoino said more bluntly: "99% of the time, buying Bitcoin is a better choice." However, Tether's investment in mining is for long-term synergy - if you already hold billions of dollars in Bitcoin, then you naturally want to participate in the construction of network security in person.

This approach is more like the logic of a sovereign state than a traditional company - Tether is building its own stablecoin issuance + mining infrastructure to make itself a "sovereignized" pillar in the cryptocurrency economy.

Tether wallet plan?

Ardoino revealed that Tether is developing an open source wallet development kit (WDK) and hinted that it may launch its own branded wallet later this year.

The goal is to build a cross-chain, multi-chain, fee-optimized wallet that automatically selects chains with lower fees for transactions and is designed for emerging markets and machine users.

Ardoino has a bold vision for the future: artificial intelligence agents can also call wallets natively, such as your smart refrigerator has USDT, and when it needs to be restocked, it can pay autonomously. He emphasized that Tether is building this large-scale non-custodial wallet ecosystem for ordinary people and machines-adaptable from $30 smartphones to industrial IoT devices.

Tether is one of the most profitable companies in the world, and continues to invest in new directions to consolidate its long-term dominance in the cryptocurrency ecosystem - not only a giant in stablecoins, but also the helmsman of the global digital dollar interactive track.