Original author: Bridget Harris
Original translation: TechFlow
In 2024, Tether generated $14 billion in profits with only 150 employees, equivalent to $93 million per employee. This amazing efficiency has led many people to believe that Tether may be the most efficient company in the world.
So how did the stablecoin company achieve this feat?
Tether made $14 billion in profits last year, surpassing Pfizer, Tesla and BlackRock. And all this was achieved without relying on advertising or a large number of employees, but only on a product that no one may have paid much attention to - the stablecoin USDT.
Today, USDTs circulation has reached 147 billion U.S. dollars, far ahead of other stablecoins and becoming the most widely used stablecoin in the world. In addition, Tether has also launched ambitious explorations in areas such as artificial intelligence, private communications and neural technology.
Every time someone buys USDT, Tether uses the cash it receives to generate returns, which are primarily invested in U.S. Treasuries.
In 2024, Tether became the seventh largest buyer of U.S. Treasuries, even surpassing countries and regions such as Canada, Taiwan, China, and Norway. And its growth rate is still accelerating: the total issuance of USDT reached 45 billion last year, a year-on-year increase of 57%, and the number of USDT users increased by 13% in the first quarter of 2025.
Although Tether has a reputation for keeping a low profile in the past, the company is now beginning to share more about its vision for the future as the U.S. regulatory environment shifts in its favor.
Stablecoins are essentially blockchain-based digital dollars that are pegged to the U.S. dollar at a 1:1 ratio. They provide the world with an efficient way to obtain dollars, both as a means of savings and significantly improving the efficiency of capital flows, especially in cross-border payments.
The second-largest stablecoin is Circles USDC, which has a circulation of $62 billion, less than half of USDT. USDC is more focused on payment compliance and institutional adoption. Unlike USDT, which dominates international markets with limited access to U.S. dollars, USDC - originally launched jointly by Coinbase and Circle - is more popular in the U.S. market.
Tether’s CEO, Paolo Ardoino, is a 40-year-old Italian computer scientist who calls himself a “simple guy” who doesn’t care about competitors.
“They don’t represent a real use case for stablecoins,” he told Forbes earlier this month.
In his view, the core value of stablecoins is to provide people in economically unstable countries with a reliable and practical currency. For example, individuals in countries such as Argentina, Turkey and Nigeria. These regions are in urgent need of obtaining US dollars because their currencies are rapidly depreciating and savings have become almost impossible.
Although USDTs main use cases are still concentrated in emerging markets, Paul is also exploring the launch of a local stablecoin specifically for US institutions.
“How ‘fun’ will this be for our competitors?” he quipped in the Forbes interview.
One of the special features of Tether’s business is its partnership with the legendary American financial institution Cantor Fitzgerald. A few years ago, when other American companies were reluctant to touch Tether, Cantor became its banking partner. At that time, Tether was controversial because some of the reserves behind USDT included Chinese corporate bonds.
Despite all the controversy, Cantor took the risk of partnering with Tether. Recently, Cantor bought a 5% stake in Tether for $600 million, a valuation that is obviously at a significant discount. The move may be partly to thank Cantor for its early support. It is worth noting that Cantors former chairman and CEO Howard Lutnick is currently the Secretary of Commerce in the Trump administration.
At a recent Bitcoin conference, Lutnick responded to criticism of Tether by saying, “They say Tether is owned by the Chinese. It’s owned by Giancarlo, who is Italian, and there’s a difference.”
(Note: Giancarlo is Tether’s chief financial officer and owns approximately 47% of Tether’s shares. Source: Forbes)
What is the close relationship between Tether and Cantor, and what is behind this preferential deal? —The secret lies in Cantor’s special status: it is one of only 24 primary dealers in the United States that can trade directly with the Federal Reserve.
In practical terms, this means that if a large number of users try to exchange USDT for US dollars, Tether can immediately meet the demand. Because as a primary dealer, Cantor helps the Federal Reserve maintain liquidity in the government bond market, which gives Cantor direct access to the Federal Reserve. When Tether needs cash, Cantor can sell US Treasury bonds directly to the Federal Reserve without delays or middlemen.
In other words, Tether has gained instant access to U.S. dollars through the worlds safest and most liquid asset. This firepower is unmatched by any other stablecoin issuer.
Tether’s strong position is not accidental. In 2022, Tether was attacked by Sam Bankman-Fried and his company FTX. They tried to trigger a bank run-like crisis by accumulating billions of dollars of USDT in just two days and selling them. In the end, Tether successfully responded to redemption demands of up to $7 billion - equivalent to 10% of the circulation at the time.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino pointed out in a recent appearance on Odd Lots that a 10% run within 48 hours would be enough to bankrupt most financial institutions, but Tether was unscathed.
In a sense, Tether is also somewhat resistant to fluctuations in U.S. Treasury bond interest rates: Generally, when interest rates fall, economic activity increases, which drives the growth of Tethers deposits and USDT circulation (although the yield may be lower, more funds can still bring considerable returns). When interest rates rise, Tether can directly increase profits through higher reserve yields.
While the two may not completely cancel each other out, this structural dynamic is an advantage for Tether.
Tethers critics often accuse the company of never having been formally audited and speculate that USDT may be used for crime and money laundering. In response, Paul usually cites cases where illegal funds can often flow undetected through banks, credit card networks, and payment processors until they enter the Tether system and are marked and frozen. Tether has assisted in more than 400 law enforcement actions in the United States to date and has worked with 230 agencies from 50 countries.
Paul also believes that Tether is actually the last line of defense in the process of dollarization in regions such as South America and Africa. In these regions, there is almost no American presence, he mentioned on Odd Lots, except McDonalds.
“In these places, hospitals, schools, libraries and airports were built by China,” Paul said. He also mentioned that China is promoting a gold-backed digital currency to pay all employees of these infrastructure projects. If successful, this move will threaten the status of the US dollar as a reserve currency and ultimately weaken the United States global political influence.
In villages in Africa, Tether is building small stations with solar panels where people can rent batteries for 3 USDT per month. In these areas, electricity is extremely scarce and 600 million people do not have access to reliable electricity. Considering that the average monthly salary in these villages is about 80 US dollars, this 3 USDT subscription service is very cost-effective for local residents. Similar initiatives have also appeared in South America, where small local stores have begun to accept USDT payments. These channels have not only become a grassroots distribution mechanism for USDT (which is conducive to Tethers business growth), but also invisibly promoted the global influence of the US dollar (which is good news for the US government).
Tether’s ambitions are not limited to the stablecoin business. The company has also invested in artificial intelligence data centers, such as Northern Data, which has 24,000 GPUs. In addition, Tether is also developing a peer-to-peer (P2P) chat application called Keet.
Historically, the main problem with peer-to-peer applications has been poor user experience, and Tether is working to solve this problem. We are looking for solutions to the user experience (UX) problem, and ultimately we hope to achieve the same user experience as WhatsApp - but completely P2P, said Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino via a Zoom meeting. The Holepunch protocol that supports Keet is actually a widely applicable peer-to-peer standard that can be used to build a variety of decentralized systems.
“What if we could suddenly build a whole range of applications — from social media and messaging to enterprise applications — that not only reduced infrastructure costs by 97 percent, but also improved privacy and ensured that data belonged to its true user?”
In addition, Tether has developed a platform called Hadron for the tokenization of assets; launched a self-custodial open source wallet; and invested in a brain-computer interface company.
In terms of the number of employees, the Tether team is small, with only 150 people, but the loyalty is very high. When we were going through the most difficult time, no one in my team left, Paul mentioned at a Cantor encryption conference.
He attributes this in part to Tether’s history of hiring mostly talent from emerging markets. “They know what’s important… They want to work for us because they see that we’re really working on solving real problems that they have, not problems that the rich world thinks they have,” Paul explained.
Paul believes that Tether is a once-in-a-century company because it is able to separate the need to build great technology from profitability. In other words, the company can focus on innovation (not limited to USDT) without worrying about short-term profit pressure. Due to the huge income brought by USDT, Tether has the ability to develop the craziest technology without rushing to profit from it.
“We use the technology we developed as the distribution layer to support our ‘golden goose’, USDT. I don’t think any other company can do this,” Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said in an interview.
“The more our technology can empower users, the more successful our core products will be. This is very different from traditional technology companies, which often need to trap users in cages in order to sell more products.”
The most comforting part of Tethers story is that its leadership has never forgotten the original intention of cryptocurrency. Institutions will betray you for the benefit of a basis point (0.01%), Paul mentioned on the Odd Lots show. This attitude was once the consensus of the entire crypto community in the early days of the industry, but it is now gradually forgotten. Transferring power from exploitative institutions back to individuals is the original intention of the birth of cryptocurrency.
Interestingly, one of the wealthiest and most influential people in crypto today remains true to these original principles, while those who abandon their original intentions in pursuit of money often end up failing or even going to jail. It is also rare that a company that makes so much money can actually help a user group so tangibly: those in emerging markets who otherwise cannot access stable currencies. All of this is based on Paul’s sincere belief: “I want Tether to be seen as… a positive contribution to the world.”
Speaking about his vision for Tether, Paul said: “The past 20 years have been great for the Western world, but I don’t think the next 10 to 15 years will be as stable for the Western world. We are a stablecoin company… but maybe we are more of a ‘stability company.’ Our technology is designed to bring stability to society, and that stability can start with currency.”
