Interview with Tether CEO: The Noise and Expansion Behind $90 Billion
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Interview with Tether CEO: The Noise and Expansion Behind $90 Billion
I don't believe cryptocurrency will kill finance. I believe Bitcoin is the ultimate money.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez
Interviewee: Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether and CTO of Bitfinex
Translation: Luffy, Foresight News
Tether is the world’s largest issuer of stablecoins, yet it has also long been controversial for various reasons. In recent years, critics have repeatedly questioned the reserves backing USDT (with a market cap of $90 billion).
However, Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s newly appointed CEO—who has long been a public face of the company and is also Chief Technology Officer at Bitfinex—says that while other crypto firms, and even some traditional banks, have gone bankrupt, Tether has continued to grow robustly.
Ardoino sat down with FORTUNE to discuss Bitfinex’s strategy in emerging markets and his views on Binance and CZ’s settlement with U.S. authorities.
How did you start your career?
I started learning programming when I was 8 years old. I remember my father bought an old Olivetti 386 back then—Olivetti is an Italian computer company—and we’re Italian. I recall him saying it cost two months’ salary, so it was a big expense. My father was an ordinary employee and also a farmer. From that point on, I began studying programming. I’ve always been excited about building things with code—it felt like art to me. With art, you can create universes; with coding, you can do the same. Soon after, I went to a university in Genoa to study computer science and graduated from there. I worked as a university researcher for several years, participating in a few very interesting projects. But salaries in Italy were extremely low—we worked miracles but were paid very little—so I decided to explore other options.
I was passionate about many aspects of computer science. I loved art and programming, open-source development, decentralized applications (this was before Bitcoin emerged), and resilient networks like BitTorrent. In my spare time at university, I cultivated these skills. Later, I became a researcher, and then decided to look elsewhere. At the same time, I grew interested in finance because I believed finance is one of the forces controlling the world. So I started paying close attention to how finance impacts society. I decided to dive deeper into finance. To do that, I began working for hedge funds, building software for portfolio management. Eventually, I moved to London and launched my own startup. That was around 2012–2013. We acquired some clients and developed software for hedge funds and family offices in the UK and Switzerland.
When did you become interested in cryptocurrency, and how did you get involved?
Around 2012–2013, I first heard about Bitcoin and read the Bitcoin white paper. What initially excited me about Bitcoin was blockchain technology. In my day-to-day work in finance, I spent a lot of time trying to reconcile data across dozens of different trading venues, custodians, and clearinghouses. The root cause was that legacy financial systems rely on outdated technology that hasn’t changed much in 30 years.
Blockchain is beautiful because everyone running a node sees the same data—the same truth. Blockchain could modernize both financial and technological infrastructure. That’s how I first viewed Bitcoin. A few months later, I began seeing Bitcoin as money—possibly the most important money in the world.
In 2014, I met Giancarlo Devasini, CFO of Bitfinex. He ran an exchange, and I had my own startup. I agreed to join and help Bitfinex solve one of its bottlenecks at the time: the speed of the matching engine, which is the core component of any trading platform. Back in 2014, Bitfinex was already among the top global exchanges. The major players then included Kraken, Coinbase, OkayCoin, Bitfinex, and Bitstamp. Bitfinex was gaining attention due to its advanced features—especially margin trading—but its matching engine left much to be desired. So that became my mission.
From 2014 to mid-2016, I focused exclusively on the matching engine and improving the platform’s speed. Then, in mid-2016, Bitfinex suffered a hack. I was invited to take on the role of CTO. By then, I was confident in my abilities. I had proven myself as someone who could build complex systems and deliver high-quality products. My responsibilities expanded from just the matching engine to overseeing the entire platform.
Can you tell me more about Bitfinex’s ongoing expansion strategy in emerging markets?
I believe emerging markets—developing countries—are precisely where cryptocurrencies are most needed. These nations are more vulnerable to currency devaluation and inflation. Everyone suffers from inflation—even people living in the U.S.—but if you live in Argentina or Venezuela, it becomes a far more severe problem. Therefore, we believe it’s crucial to serve customers who genuinely need help. Europeans may be enthusiastic about crypto, but in a way, selling services to them is like trying to sell ice cream to Inuit people—they don’t really need it. Europe and North America already have the best payment and transaction channels in the world.
Tools like Bitfinex Pay and Bitfinex peer-to-peer trading are ideal for emerging markets because they address real needs. We firmly believe in the potential of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Overall, we’re creating a lifeboat for millions of people living in emerging economies. Argentina has defaulted multiple times, and their fiat currency is overwhelmed. Imagine a family saving money for 10 years, only to lose it all overnight. That’s profoundly unfair, isn’t it? I think this is the first time in history people can choose to opt out—to make the right choice to protect their families from the wrong decisions made by their central banks.
What’s your view on CZ and Binance’s settlement with U.S. prosecutors? Is this beneficial for Bitfinex?
Unlike many of our competitors, we don’t take pleasure in others’ misfortunes. I found it sad that some CEOs seemed almost arrogant about it. It’s important to focus on your own company rather than hoping others fail—that mindset is truly unfortunate.
Compared to Binance, Bitfinex is a different kind of company. We’re a smaller exchange. We’ve chosen to stay small. We’re proud of our compliance efforts and our technology. Over time, we’ve passed on various opportunities because they didn’t align with our risk appetite—something not every exchange willing to take greater risks can say. We aim to win the marathon, not because others tripped.
How has things been going since you took over as CEO of Tether in October? What’s your vision for the company?
Business as usual. At Bitfinex and Tether, I’ve always seen myself not just as a developer. In recent years, I’ve increasingly engaged in corporate strategy and taken on a public-facing role. Tether has grown into a giant, and I’ve proven my ability to lead teams.
I believe Tether is almost unique among its peers. For years, many—not necessarily a large number, but some very loud voices—have been waiting for Tether to collapse, cheering for it to happen as a victory for the rest of the crypto industry. I remember when most mainstream media supported FTX. Now, of course, everyone is scrambling to distance themselves. Just over a year ago, everyone was cheering for Celsius, BlockFi, Voyager, and Genesis—but all of those companies collapsed last year.
Even this year, bank after bank—Silicon Valley Bank, Signature, Silvergate, and Credit Suisse—went under. So whenever I hear bankers criticizing us, or others in crypto blaming us, I always remind them of the facts.
Tether is the most reliable company in this industry. We’ve consistently built innovation—the stablecoin. Tether’s second innovation is full-reserve banking. Think about it: all those banks—Silicon Valley, Silvergate, Signature, and Credit Suisse—were highly leveraged. Those U.S. banks were leveraged using bonds—10-year, 20-year, 30-year bonds. Tether, meanwhile, undergoes rigorous scrutiny and has consistently proven to be trustworthy—even though Tether holds commercial paper.
Why do you think USDT has grown so much more than its peers recently?
The reason is clear. Our competitors target Wall Street, bankers, and institutions. But if you're in Europe, you don't need a dollar stablecoin—that would be crazy. As I said about Bitfinex, it applies equally to Tether. If you're in the U.S., you don't need a dollar stablecoin either. Everyone has a bank account, credit or debit cards, and easy access to loans.
There are 3 billion unbanked people excluded from the financial system—not because they’re bad people, they’re just as great as anyone else—but simply too poor for any bank to care. So we don’t serve U.S. customers, nor are we interested in European clients. Our focus has always been developing countries and emerging markets.
Tether is indeed resilient, but it still hasn’t released a full audit. Could that be a problem?
First, none of our strong competitors have undergone a comprehensive audit, yet they’re still hailed as heroes in crypto. They’re smaller than us, and I often wonder why. The issue isn’t that Tether doesn’t want a full audit. I’ve said it publicly many times: Tether wants a full audit and is actively trying to engage a major auditing firm. But look at what’s happening in the U.S. Congress—they’ve advised auditors not to accept new crypto-related clients. Taking on new crypto clients could expose auditors to massive liability, especially after FTX.
Our attestations also differ from our competitors’. If you examine the details of our attestation reports and the procedures conducted by BDO, you’ll see that BDO actually requires direct confirmation of bank balances from all our counterparties. They don’t just take our word for it—their approach is extremely thorough. Moreover, we maintain $3.2 billion in excess reserves. We could have freely allocated those billions—it was our money, our profit—but we chose not to, because we’re committed to making Tether the most reliable company in the crypto space and beyond.
Again, all banks operate fractional reserves, but Tether does not. We want to prove it’s possible to run a healthy company and retain the vast majority of profits internally, providing users with extra assurance. We’ve done exceptionally well. Of course, we remain committed to working with auditors to obtain a full audit—that remains our top priority.
What do you think the future of finance looks like?
I don’t believe crypto will kill finance. I believe Bitcoin—I make a clear distinction between crypto and Bitcoin—is the ultimate money, a safeguard and life jacket for anyone wanting to exit the current monetary system. The existing system has serious flaws. I don’t think crypto saves money.
I believe Bitcoin is increasingly being adopted and accepted by the traditional financial system. Bitcoin can be used in two ways: through ETFs and bank products, or—if people choose—by fully opting out and self-custodying Bitcoin. This offers the best of both worlds. It’s the greatest reassurance anyone could have. For the first time in history, people can truly hold their own money. This has never happened before, and it will permanently transform finance. I believe Bitcoin will force finance to become more real, more open, and more honest in the coming years. But Bitcoin is still a newborn. It takes time. Still, I find it incredibly exciting.
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