What if the company behind the world's largest stablecoin is actually building the financial system for a future of 10 billion robots and a trillion AI agents? Today, I'm sitting down with Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino to discuss the audit that answered more than a decade of criticism.
After waiting 12 years, knowing that the company was a good company, that we had all the money that we were supposed to have and more, actually much more, I think it's a win for our industry that finally got the recognition that it deserved.
Why Tether could soon become one of the world's largest buyers of US treasuries.
The ownership of US treasuries from an antagonistic country is not a great thing for the United States because you have a single decision maker that can press a button and sell hundreds of billions of dollars of US treasuries from one day to another. So we created the decentralized ownership of the US debt with 650 million people that today basically are holding some US treasuries, and they will not wake up all together one single morning deciding to sell that debt.
And how Bitcoin, gold, and even farmland are protecting its future.
We call ourselves the stable company. We need to take into consideration every single possible scenario. That's why we invest in gold and Bitcoin, and we also invest in land. It's not a game for us. It's a true mission. We need to remain a company that survives the worst-case scenario.
But the biggest story is what comes next: programmable money for AI agents and technology designed to bring financial services and artificial intelligence to billions of people the existing system has left behind. Tether is becoming far more than a stablecoin company. Let's go.
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You have way too many material possessions back there. Yes, I have like a boxing glove and a couple of, you know, useless shit on the shelves.
Boxing gloves are for punching the wall through the bear market out of boredom, trying to find something to do. But you know, I'm joking. As boring as crypto's been for most people, it has not been for you. I mean, this has been a banner year. Maybe we can start with the audit, right? You got the KPMG audit. You came out swinging with a Gladiator meme, "Are you not entertained?" all those years. And I can proudly say that I believed you were fully backed for all those years, and we've had a lot of conversations. That had to feel good to put that out there.
Yeah. After waiting 12 years knowing that the company is a good company, that we had all the money that we were supposed to have and more, actually much more. And look, it's not just about myself or the great team—I mean, our team has been incredible in making this happen. We are also very thankful to KPMG US, of course, but all the people like you and many others that supported us throughout the fight. I think it's a win for the entire industry. It's a win for our industry that finally got the recognition that it deserved.
We went through an administration in the United States, the previous administration, that was very anti-crypto, that also made it almost impossible for auditors to sit down at the table with companies like us and just look at our balance sheet. I mean, our balance sheet is not difficult. It's treasuries, gold, a bit of Bitcoin, and equity in excess of the liabilities. Liabilities are all the tokens issued, and we have plenty more reserves inside our company compared to all the issued tokens.
So it was never about the complexity of the audit. It was about the right environment that was understanding how crypto and digital assets are such an important tool for the future of finance. And that's why we are grateful to KPMG. We're grateful to the administration that made this possible, and our entire finance team and the entire team of Tether worked very hard with top priority to achieve this milestone.
Does KPMG now become an annual auditor, or is this a one-time thing? "We're done. We've done it. Come on."
No, no, no. The plan is continuing to do this audit every single year. Of course, throughout the year, we're going to continue with the attestation process that has been going on since many years. But the audit has to be annual, and we will continue with our commitment to do so.
So obviously, as you pointed out, it was basically impossible to get an audit with the previous administration, and we're in a much more pro-crypto regime at this point. But that has led to legislation actually passing on stablecoins with the GENIUS Act. I don't believe the Clarity Act will pass personally, but maybe you have a different take on that. But with the regime that we currently have, it leaves you in an interesting situation as you make plans to fully become available in the United States, right? So USDT, USAT—can you talk about the relationship there and what the plan is to be fully available in the US?
Well, I think that first of all, USAT is the product that is designed from the get-go to be available in the United States and to be fully compliant with the GENIUS Act. Also, with USDT we aim and are working towards full compliance. By the way, also USDT is fully compliant already when it comes to all the KYC, AML, sanctions monitoring, working with law enforcement. We have surpassed by a long shot now more than 300 law enforcement agencies across more than 60 countries. We have been extremely helpful to many of the US law enforcement agencies: DOJ, FBI, Secret Service, and so on.
So that part is without any discussion one of the biggest achievements of Tether—the ability to create something very innovative in crypto and digital assets, but at the same time being of the highest compliance possible when it comes to following all the laws, especially starting from the United States and moving towards the rest of the world. So that is without any discussion our priority when it comes to AML, and of course we comply with OFAC sanctions and all that.
USAT is designed for a different purpose when it comes to the financial markets versus USDT. USAT is designed for being the liquidity layer, the interbanking liquidity layer, and a tool that is more geared towards financial markets and high-velocity trading, versus USDT is the stablecoin, the dollar, for all the emerging markets and developing countries. I don't believe necessarily that one single stablecoin can solve both different use cases.
Both of the stablecoins will be GENIUS compliant. With USDT, we are aiming towards obtaining reciprocity across different jurisdictions, so all that is progressing well. When it comes to USAT, though, the primary customer, the primary user of USAT might be a financial institution. Financial institutions might seek certain requirements from a stablecoin—velocity, support of certain chains, and primarily focusing on being the stablecoin that can back the issuance of other digital assets, tokenized stocks, or tokenized debt, and so on and so forth. While on the other side, USDT is more focused on being the dollar of the person that lives in Argentina or Brazil or El Salvador or Congo.
These two different things will require two different teams that will focus on two different priorities, and that is exactly the distinction. There is no real complex thing behind the choice of having two products. In the end, we are seeing how the world is moving towards a gazillion different stablecoins. You will see now everyone and their sisters and daughters are going to launch their own stablecoins. So having two is not going to be problematic as long as USDT and USAT remain interoperable, which they already are, interoperable and swappable one-to-one.
So I want to talk about something that I've been thinking about. You're in this very interesting position where effectively, as a business, you're long the dollar network, right? But you're also simultaneously hedging the dollar itself with your actual holdings, right? So you distribute dollars globally through USDT. You own an enormous amount of treasuries, which I want to get into, and your business generates billions of dollars. But you take the capital and you aggressively buy Bitcoin and gold, right, which are the two assets that are most associated with protecting yourself from fiat debasement. That's an interesting needle to thread.
Yeah. First of all, you have to look at it from the market perspective, right? Tether recently reissued also a gold-backed token. It's called XAUT, Tether Gold. We believe in the importance of tokenized gold and tokenized commodities, and we believe that it is important that the most prominent tokenized gold token will follow the same rules and requirements that, for example, we follow with USDT and USAT when it comes to KYC, AML, and so on. There might be jurisdictions that are antagonistic to the United States that will soon issue tokenized gold, and I believe that it is in the best interest of the United States to see a tokenized gold product that follows the same rules and is subject to the same requirements when it comes to cleanness of the product that the United States really wants with the GENIUS Act and with the Clarity Act.
On top of that, yes, I think it's important for a company like Tether that comes from digital assets to have a position in Bitcoin. Bitcoin is the mother of all digital assets and is one of the greatest currencies in the world, if not the greatest, and it's the currency that of course offers a hedge to inflation. When Tether earns its own money, it can decide where to put it, and I believe that it is important to put it in something that will survive an apocalyptic future, potentially. We see so much uncertainty on global markets, on macro, that a company like Tether cannot afford to not look at that picture, at that instability. We call ourselves the stable company. We need to take into consideration every single possible scenario. That's why we invest in gold and Bitcoin, and we also invest in land.
Tether owns a big chunk of Adecoagro, that is probably the largest landowner in South America. We have hundreds of thousands of sheep and cows, and that company produces milk, rice, and so on. When we think about the stability of the world, that has to come through real, tangible assets, and including Bitcoin in that. It's not a game for us. It's a true mission. We need to remain a company that survives the worst-case scenario, and I think our balance sheet speaks about that.
Yeah, I think people forget that you were a Bitcoiner first.
Yes, I'm a Bitcoiner. I love Bitcoin.
