Attendees applauded and cheered when Paolo Ardoino, the public face of the company perhaps more influential in Crypto, entered the stage at the Global Cantor Fitzgerald Technology Conference in New York on Wednesday.
Ardoino stood out of the crowd, not because of its wealth but for its choice of clothing. While others dressed to impress, he opted for a relaxed appearance, a light blue light blue and gray -khaki, despite having the deepest pockets of the room.
“This is my first trip to America,” he began to say. “It’s beautiful. I feel very welcome.”
Ardoino in fact avoided the country for a long time. The computer scientist born in Italy until recently focused mainly Tether’s operations in the development of regions, with financial freedom as the declared objective.
Another reason could be that Tether has been under scrutiny of industry leaders, as well as US authorities for some time, including the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Commercial and Future Trade Commission (CFTC) and the Department of Financial Services of the State of New York (NYFSD).
That has changed. Ardoino has been on a tour of the United States during the past week, publishing photos of himself in the steps of the US Capitol building. Uu. In Washington DC on Thursday and participating in a talk by the fire with the CEO of Strike Jack Mallers in an event on Tuesday organized by the Bitcoin Policy Institute.
The company, which according to Ardoino is administered by only 150 employees in 50 countries, established positions with the CFTC and a NYDFS investigation in 2021. There have been numerous reports of an ongoing investigation of the Department of Justice on the Stablecoin issuer in recent years.
“We have gone through hell,” Ardoino told the attendees at the conference. “People said that if it came to the United States, they would be arrested … they will try to scare you.”
“We are still here, right?”
After a summary of the previous success of Tether in the Stablecoin business, the company, according to the reports, obtained a gain of $ 13 billion in 2024 and its stablecoin, USDT, has more than 60% of the market share between Stablcoins, Ardoino presented current projects in which the company is working, including its efforts in education, AI and country of real work (RWA).
“The perspective for this year is also wonderful,” said Ardoino.
The Journey of the United States of Ardoino arrived at a time when the United States Legislature is moving to regulate the Stablcoin market of $ 200 billion and rapid growth. Tether is dominating the class of assets with its cryptocurrency of $ 143 billion, followed by the circle of US competition with its token of $ 58 billion dollars.
While Tether is an offshore company, he recently announced his intention to establish his headquarters in El Salvador, and has not yet shown interest in formally entering the United States cryptography market, his ties with the United States are multifaceted.
The firm is one of the largest buyers of the American debt, which has almost $ 100 billion in treasures in the United States and values backed by the government as a reserve asset for its USDT token. If it were a country, it would be among the 20 main US debt holders. The secretary of the Treasury, Scott Besent, said during a Digital Assets of the White House on Friday that Stablecoins are key to preserving the US dollar as the dominant reserve currency in the world, an argument line that Ardoino promoted multiple occasions before.
The company also won a powerful ally in the secretary of the Trump Administration in Trade Howard Lutnick, former CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, the Wall Street investment firm that manages the treasure holdings of the United States of Tether. The Wall Street Journal reported that Cantor is also invested in the Tether holder company, while Lutnick said during his confirmation audience that Cantor has convertible bonds of Tether but does not have a capital participation.
Ardoino, in an interview with Coindesk last year, said that the company also incorporated US agencies such as FBI and secret service to its platform in an effort to combat illegal activities.
In the investment front, Tether became an important shareholder with an investment of $ 775 million on the video exchange platform to share videos in the United States, popular among American conservative and right -wing users. With the support of Tether, Rumble Cheo, Chris Pavloski, established plans to introduce a cryptographic wallet and support payments with USDT, BTC and Token Xaut backed by Tether’s gold.
Pavloski repeatedly called Ardoino while on stage on Wednesday.
