Welcome back to the starting block. We are sitting down virtually for an exclusive interview with Paolo Ardoino, of course the CEO of Tether. And big news in the last 24 hours, Tether finally announcing an official audit from a big four auditing firm, something critics have been calling for for years. And we've got Paolo on the line to talk to us about the audit and all the details behind that. First things first, Paolo, it's great to have you back on the show. How are you doing?
Thank you very much, Gareth, and it's definitely a great great day for Tether, for myself. You know, Tether was founded in 2014. And you know, we worked very hard for so many years. We built an amazing technology, and a technology that now is looked at by also traditional financial institutions. And I think that just a cherry on top of this beautiful cake was the full financial audit by Big Four firm that was promised and was delivered. So, the entire team, I cannot describe how excited is the entire team. It's, you know, they are all over the place. So, yeah, it's a great feeling.
I mean, I've been in the industry since 2017, so nowhere near as long as you have been. And I remember, you know, in the first year or two, the amount of criticism that Tether got for the lack of an audit over the years. Can you talk to us a little bit about why it was so difficult to get it done in the first place and the lengths that you had to go to now to finally tick that box?
So, I just want to start with the fact that technically the audit of TIL, Tether International Limited, that is the entity that was audited, that is the issuer of USDT, is fairly simple because we have just a few different asset classes as part of the balance sheet. And so, technically I think the complexity of doing that type of audit operationally is not that high. We have a great bookkeeping process. We have very thorough management. We are very very very much risk averse. You could remember the digital asset industry what it passed in 2022 and 2023 with our major competitor almost going down because of a couple of banks and the risk that he had there. And Tether always passed those very difficult moments with flying colors. But you know, when you have an antagonistic administration in the most important country in the world that is the United States, that was the past administration especially with important people like Senator Warren going out and specifically calling out Tether and suggesting that auditors should not touch us with a 10-foot pole. That creates some certain uncertainty with these auditing firms. And I think the last administration made it clear. This current administration actually made it clear that digital assets are something that is very important for the future of the United States and for the future of the world. Our great technology is something that the United States are interested to lead. And so for that reason we almost immediately got back to the table with the different big four, with a few of the big four auditing firms and then we decided to sign with KPMG US. You know, it's funny because in the past even just the fact that we went with the non-US firm that was in this case doing our attestation, BDO, was a matter of controversy, right? So we decided to put ourselves through the highest of the possible scrutiny levels. With KPMG US, we proved ourselves throughout the process. We found ourselves capable of handling that. The team was really mission-driven. I said many times this would have been our highest priority. And again, the shift in the administration just allowed these firms to go back to the table. I'm very grateful for that. Again, the audit of a company like Tether is in itself, you know, the balance sheet is not complex, right? So, we have on one side the liabilities are the tokens that are issued. On the other side, well, I have all the reserves. And as was cleared through and was visible through the attestation of the 31st of December, 2025, we came out with 6 billion plus in excess equity. That was confirmed by the auditors. So, these are all very important things because we are going to have moving forward a yearly audit plus a quarterly attestation that I think is the highest level of transparency you can find in this industry.
Yeah, I found it very interesting over the years. You know, I think one of the main criticisms was like, how do we know that Tether is just not minting loads of USDT and not having the collateral, right? That's why the audit needed to be there. But I've read plenty of criticisms even in the last 24 hours. You know, people saying Tether should be more transparent about its ownership, who's involved, that kind of thing. How do you feel about this still this air of criticism that is there when you've come out with a big four audit?
I think, you know, today I posted a tweet. I didn't do in a long time, but I posted a tweet to a guy called Bitfinex. And you know, when I was a kid, I was watching, you know, on Italian television, there was this show, Happy Days. And that was very popular across the world, but you know, we had also in Italy. And there was Fonzie, that could not say, 'I am wrong.' Right? So, he was stuttering when he was trying to say that. And if you look at many of these people, there is a fundamental issue in many people. They cannot say that they're wrong. They have to find an excuse. And I think in the end, it's just their issue, right? So if someone cannot admit they're wrong, they will never grow up as a human being, and honestly, I don't care. We proved ourselves many times. We proved ourselves with doing more redemptions in a single day, in 24 hours, in 48 hours, than any other financial institution did in the history of finance. We redeemed $7 billion in 2022 in 48 hours, when that was 10% of our reserves, when every single financial institution or bank that was subject to 10% or more of redemptions in a short amount of time went belly up. So, these type of things are very unique to Tether. And honestly, I'm happy to be kept on my toes. I'm happy to get the criticism, because it makes us better, makes us stronger, makes us waking up every single day with the will and the force and the strength to prove everyone's wrong. It's great. I'm in a certain way, I like the fact that I'm considered by certain people the villain, because then we can be the heroes for 650 million people out there that were never served by the entire financial industry. So, I can live with myself. I wake up in the morning. I think we are doing a good thing. I think I'm doing the right thing. I think my team is doing the right thing. So, there is no amount of criticism that will discourage us or will hijack ourselves from our journey and our mission.
I found a funny anecdote from the audit, you know, saying that you made the auditors count every single gold bar in your reserve. It's pretty funny and tongue-in-cheek, but is that really what happened?
