6:30Do you have any specific growth targets that you could share with us?
7:26How can you ensure viewers, listeners, competitors that there is no conflict of interest between you and what is happening right now at the White House?
8:25Can you talk to us a little bit about how this role came together and when you started conversations with Paulo or the other folks over at Tether?
9:29Were you talking about this role while you were still employed at the White House?
Tether launching a US regulated stable coin in partnership with Cantor Fitzgerald and Anchorage Digital. The token known as USAT will be issued by Anchorage in compliance with the Genius Act. Let's bring in Tether CEO Paulo Ardoino and Bo Hines, former White House crypto official who now leads Tether's USAT. Paulo, I want to start with you because it raises the question to me about the difference between USAT and USDT. Is the launch of USAT basically saying that USDT is not compliant under the Genius Act?
Absolutely not. So we have expressly said a few times now that also USDT will be compliant with the Genius Act under the foreign issuer protocol and there is a pathway in the Genius Act to make it happen and that's what Tether is focusing on. But at the same time we felt the need to create a domestic stable coin in the United States that is focusing on the actual needs of the US market. It is a very efficient market compared to all the emerging markets in developing countries where USDT is leading the way into financial inclusion and growth and banking the unbanked or the underbanked. But while in the United States the landscape is different, there are a lot of many competitors in the financial index sector. So USAT is going to be specifically designed for the growth of the United States and within the United States.
So Bo, let me ask you then. Who exactly is USAT targeting? What kind of customers are you going after with this particular stable coin and why would they need it? What's the pitch?
Well, look, you know, our payment rails in the United States have been archaic for quite some time. I liken it to technology development. The way that we communicate, the ways in which we move money has really remained stagnant. And so obviously with Genius passing into law and the adoption of stable coins, I think this revolutionizes our financial system and truly a way that we've never seen before. It makes payments more cost effective. It gives us instant settlement times. It allows us to move money overseas in a much more expeditious way. So you know, we're looking at a completely new world. I think the customers that we're looking to serve are both global financial institutions that obviously have deep ties to US capital markets along with consumers that have been underbanked or underserved for quite some time and don't want to pay insane amounts for transaction fees when they're just moving money to friends and family.
So Paulo, how do you effectively out compete USDC here from Circle? How is your strategy different from theirs? Because if we think about these, I mean, you essentially have to convince us that these aren't commodities. And I don't mean commodities in the way that they're classified by regulators. I mean commodities in the way that they're not necessarily different from one another.
Well, that's a very good point. But I think the only thing that matters or the most important strategy here to compete is distribution. Tether built over the last 11 years now the biggest distribution network physical and digital probably in the history of humanity. I'm not saying that lightly. So we have hundreds of thousands of physical distribution places in all the emerging markets developing countries. We have partnered with Rumble and invested in Rumble as a huge distribution channel within the United States with like 60 million active users per month. I mean our ability and we have partnered we have invested so we don't have like our competitors to rent out the distribution channels. We own them, we partner with them, and so we can leverage to maximize the profitability, but also reinvest in our own ecosystem to make it wider, to make it more efficient and cost effective for every single user.
Bo, one thing that's really interesting, I think that's happened over the last few months is the idea that stable coins is no longer just the purview of companies that focus on digital assets. And indeed, there's reporting that indicates companies such as retailers or even payments firms are interested in adopting this technology. Can you share with us any conversations that you've had with executives at other companies that are interested in this digital asset?
Well, you're seeing this with the larger banks in the United States as well. People are talking about issuing their own stable coin. You know, I think they're going to pivot. I think that many of these firms are just a little bit out over their skis in terms of understanding the technological needs that must be there in order for the infrastructure to work properly and that's something that we have at Tether. We have the best technology. We have the distribution channels as Paulo has described. I think that we'll have many partners in this space. We'll collaborate with many of the traditional financial institutions in the United States to build out the best product for their consumers. I think that we will be adopted far and wide here in the US both from the consumer perspective as well as the institutional perspective. And I think that we'll set up these corridors to move money in ways that people have never seen before. Should be the most.
Well, look, we're talking to several of them. We'll have fantastic news to release in the coming months. I think we'll have many partners, not just one. We're not going to be exclusive. Look, we're agnostic. We want to help as many consumers as possible in the US and we want to help as many businesses that we can as well.
All right. So, that means you're coming back on to tell us when you do have news to announce. You just committed yourself to that. Paulo, talk a little bit about how USAT, the US regulated stable coin that you're launching here, will differ when it comes to what it's backed by? We know that USDT is backed by short-term US treasuries along with some other cash equivalents. What is USAT going to be backed by?
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Hines, B. (2025, September 16). Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino & Tether USA CEO Bo Hines Talk Stablecoin | Bloomberg Talks [Interview transcript]. Bloomberg Podcasts. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1015884/
MLA
Bo Hines. "Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino & Tether USA CEO Bo Hines Talk Stablecoin | Bloomberg Talks." Bloomberg Podcasts, 16 Sep. 2025. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1015884/.
BibTeX
@misc{hines2025_1015884,
author = {Bo Hines},
title = {Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino \& Tether USA CEO Bo Hines Talk Stablecoin | Bloomberg Talks},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, Bloomberg Podcasts. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2025},
month = {sep},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1015884/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
