What Are the Most Profitable CEOs in the Crypto Industry Doing Right Now?
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What Are the Most Profitable CEOs in the Crypto Industry Doing Right Now?
“I hope financial inclusion—connecting 536 million people to the U.S. dollar system—is an issue that both parties care about.”
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy Connie Loizos
Translated by AididiaoJP, Foresight News
If you’ve been following the news lately, you may have noticed a trend over the past week. Beyond extensive coverage in Fortune and Bloomberg, Paolo Ardoino, CEO of stablecoin firm Tether, granted interviews to Reuters and TechCrunch. Why has this controversial stablecoin founder suddenly launched a sweeping media campaign?
The timing is no coincidence. This week, Tether launched USAT—a new product billed as its first stablecoin fully compliant with U.S. federal regulations, issued via Anchorage Digital Bank and designed to compete directly with Circle’s USDC. Meanwhile, Fidelity Investments also launched its own stablecoin on Wednesday, joining JPMorgan Chase and PayPal in an increasingly heated battle.
This marks a dramatic shift. For years, Paolo Ardoino operated largely outside the United States, avoiding regulatory scrutiny and prosecutorial investigations overseas. His company was frequently labeled “opaque” and “fraud-adjacent”; last summer, The Economist even dubbed it “a money launderer’s dream.”
But in this week’s video interview, Paolo Ardoino made it clear: those days are over. Tether is now meeting with White House officials, collaborating with the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service, and expects USAT to break Circle’s monopoly in the U.S. market. (USAT differs from Tether’s flagship USDT—globally circulating at $187 billion—but which fails to meet new U.S. regulatory requirements.) The 41-year-old Ardoino spoke from Tether’s office in Lugano, Switzerland, spending over an hour describing how the company evolved from a crypto-native player into a mainstream-recognized institution.
Tether’s momentum is undeniable. Its USDT is, in essence, a blockchain-based digital dollar that moves across borders without reliance on any single institution—and its market capitalization now exceeds the combined total of all other stablecoins. It boasts roughly 536 million users, growing by 30 million per quarter. “Its growth rate resembles Facebook’s—not that of a typical fintech app,” Ardoino said.
He believes Tether’s first-mover advantage extends beyond market dominance—it delivers tangible change for people in countries suffering currency instability. “Over the past five years, the Argentine peso has depreciated 94.5% against the U.S. dollar,” he noted. “Haiti’s per capita daily income stands at just $1.34. These people have never been served by the traditional financial system.”
“Tether has created the largest financial inclusion success story in human history,” he added.
Ardoino knows winning broader trust remains work in progress. Last summer’s Economist report didn’t help—it revealed that Russian money launderer Ekaterina Zhdanova allegedly used Tether to connect British drug traffickers, Moscow-based hackers, sanctioned oligarchs, and Russian intelligence operatives.
When asked about the article, Ardoino dismissed it lightly, calling the amounts involved “a drop in the ocean.” “The vast majority of USDT users are ordinary people,” he said. “We’ve collaborated with nearly 300 law enforcement agencies across more than 60 countries. iPhones and Toyota cars can also be misused by bad actors—but that doesn’t make the products themselves flawed.”
He went further, arguing Tether’s technology offers superior traceability for illicit activity compared to cash. “Hundreds of billions of dollars in physical cash flow globally, and U.S. law enforcement struggles to track it. But with USDT, we collaborate with hundreds of agencies—including the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Secret Service—to freeze funds rapidly.”
According to him, Tether has frozen $3.5 billion worth of tokens—most belonging to “users who were scammed or hacked.” For example, in 2023, Tether identified and froze $225 million in a “pig butchering” scam—an investment fraud where perpetrators build trust, often through romantic relationships, before luring victims into fake investments—before traditional finance had even detected it. (“Pig butchering” refers to scams where fraudsters cultivate trust, sometimes even romantic relationships, to lure victims into fraudulent investments.)
“We work closely with the FBI and the Secret Service and strictly comply with OFAC sanctions,” he said.
It remains unclear whether critics are satisfied—but Tether has indeed weathered repeated crises. Just three months ago, S&P Global Ratings described USDT as “less stable.”
Ardoino brushed off the assessment: “If this is the same S&P that completely failed to foresee the subprime crisis, then I’m proud they consider us ‘weak.’”
He recalled the spring of 2022, when another major stablecoin—TerraLuna—collapsed overnight, wiping out $40 billion and triggering market panic. Hedge funds bet Tether would be next, sparking a massive user run. “We redeemed $7 billion within 48 hours—10% of our reserves—and $20 billion within 20 days—25% of our reserves. No bank globally could withstand such a run—but we did.”
He hinted that another competitor—clearly referring to Circle—performed poorly during a banking crisis. When Silicon Valley Bank collapsed in 2023, Circle disclosed $3 billion in exposure, causing USDC to briefly depeg. When asked about Circle—the so-called “cleaner alternative”—Ardoino’s PR team quickly interrupted; he offered only a reluctant remark: “If you don’t bow to Wall Street, others will view you differently.”
Ardoino emphasized that Tether currently holds $30 billion in excess reserves—far exceeding what’s needed for redemptions. These reserves are held in custody by Cantor Fitzgerald, the Wall Street firm led for over three decades by Howard Lutnick—who became U.S. Secretary of Commerce one year ago. Lutnick has publicly endorsed Tether, and the firm earns substantial fees managing Tether’s massive Treasury holdings—creating a confluence of commercial interest and policy influence.
Ardoino contends Tether is safer than traditional banks. “Banks operate on a 90% fractional reserve system: deposit $1 million, and only $100,000 stays on hand while $900,000 gets lent out. Even if Bitcoin fell to zero, our holdings would still fully cover every USDT in circulation.”
Those massive reserves generate massive profits. Fortune reported Tether’s 2025 profit exceeded $15 billion—primarily from yield on its reserves. Unlike savings accounts, these yields are not shared with USDT holders. When asked whether Tether might consider sharing interest, Ardoino noted that while U.S. users expect interest, Tether’s core users prioritize preservation of value above all.
“The Turkish lira has depreciated 81% against the dollar over five years; the Argentine peso, 94.5%. For people facing 3% daily currency depreciation, a 4% annualized interest rate is meaningless. To much of the world, a dollar stablecoin functions like a savings account; to Americans, it’s more akin to a checking account.”
Not sharing yields may also reflect legal considerations. The CLARITY Act, currently advancing in Congress, could prohibit stablecoin issuers from paying interest to holders—to prevent deposits from fleeing traditional banks. If passed, it would effectively cement Tether’s existing model, while disadvantaging competitors like Circle that experiment with reward programs.
More Than Just Stablecoins
Paolo Ardoino’s ambitions extend far beyond USDT. Launched in 2020, Tether Gold—a gold-backed token—now circulates at $2.6 billion, representing equivalent physical gold holdings. Yet Tether’s gold strategy is even broader: as revealed in its Bloomberg interview, the company holds approximately 140 tons of gold—valued at roughly $24 billion—making it one of the world’s largest private gold holders.
Why launch gold products? Ardoino says it’s about offering choice in an uncertain world. “Gold is humanity’s earliest widely adopted form of money. With blockchain, we’re enabling gold—beyond being merely a store of value—for the first time to function as a medium of exchange.”
At launch, “we were almost treated as lunatics,” he recalled. Since then, Tether has purchased gold at a pace of 1–2 tons per week—a process Ardoino calls “building one of the world’s largest gold central banks.”
But Tether’s investment in AI reveals an even grander vision. Roughly nine months ago, Tether launched Qvac, a decentralized AI platform named after Isaac Asimov’s short story “The Last Question”—which Ardoino considers “the greatest science fiction work ever written.”
His framing of Qvac mirrors that of USDT: serving overlooked populations. “USDT never targeted JPMorgan Chase’s customers—we serve those abandoned by traditional finance,” he said. Centralized AI platforms, he argues, will likewise exclude billions who cannot afford subscriptions.
“If someone can’t afford a $150-per-year bank account, they certainly can’t afford expensive AI platforms.” Qvac is designed to run locally on smartphones. Ardoino predicts that high-end smartphones will become ubiquitous across Africa and South America within three to five years—covering 80% of AI use cases. “USDT will power the world’s largest decentralized AI platform.”
Even so, Qvac is just one piece of a much larger strategy. Fortune reports Tether has invested over $1 billion in German AI robotics firm Neura, $775 million in social media platform Rumble, and hundreds of millions more in satellites, data centers, and agriculture. The magazine describes Tether’s transformation into an entity resembling a “sovereign wealth fund.”
From the outside, these investments—including Tether’s stake in Juventus Football Club—may appear disjointed. But Ardoino insists they’re internally coherent: “Tether’s mission is ‘stability.’ We invest in land, livestock, agriculture, modern technology, gold—the unifying goal is ensuring Tether remains a foundational pillar in users’ worlds.”
He envisions an interconnected ecosystem: digitizing agriculture, revolutionizing gold markets, and decentralizing communications. “We aim to build a company built to last—one that transforms the lives of hundreds of millions and delivers ‘stability’ to people who’ve never experienced it before.”
When asked about political risk—if the next U.S. administration again views Tether as a threat—Ardoino said he’s prepared.
“I hope financial inclusion—connecting 536 million people to the dollar system—is a bipartisan priority. That requires education.”
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