The Stablecoin King | Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino on GENIUS Act, Circle IPO, Bitcoin & Tether to Trillions

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino returns to Bankless at a historic moment for stablecoins. With the Genius Act advancing in the U.S. Congress, Paolo discusses what regulatory clarity means for Tether, the future of USDT, and the company’s plans to launch a domestic stablecoin. We explore the Circle IPO hype, Tether’s eye-popping profits, its growing presence in the U.S. Treasuries and Bitcoin mining, and how grassroots distribution across emerging markets powers its dominance. Paolo also gives a glimpse into Tether’s ambitions in AI, tokenized gold, and the battle to distribute the dollar where banks can’t reach. ------ 🎬 DEBRIEF | Ryan & David Unpacking the Episode https://www.bankless.com/podcast/debrief-the-stablecoin-king-tether-ceo-paolo-ardoino ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🪙FRAX | SELF SUFFICIENT DeFi https://bankless.cc/Frax 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 🌐CELO | BUILD TOGETHER AND PROSPER https://bankless.cc/Celo 🟠 BINANCE | THE WORLDS #1 CRYPTO EXCHANGE https://bankless.cc/binance ------ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 5:32 GENIUS Act 12:54 Tether & The US 22:13 Domestic Competition 26:23 Circle IPO 23:36 Handling Pressure 28:32 Stablecoin Valuations 31:38 Winning the Next Chapter 36:52 USDT in Emerging Markets 41:58 Tether & Crypto Correlation 45:52 Tether Ventures 53:25 Tether Wallet? 56:44 Tether & Bitcoin 1:00:15 Other Assets 1:01:07 Bitcoin Mining 1:04:58 Tokenized Gold 1:09:01 GENIUS Act Consequences 1:12:27 Europe 1:14:49 Why Tether is Good 1:17:50 Closing & Disclaimers ------ RESOURCES Paolo Ardoino https://x.com/paoloardoino USDT Insights https://usdt.network/ Tether https://tether.io/ ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠