Tether CEO: US market entry ‘well underway’ amid plans for institutional stablecoin

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the stablecoin issuer is well underway to do business in the U.S. in an interview with Bloomberg Television. The news comes less than a week after President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law to regulate stablecoins in the U.S.

“We are well in progress of establishing our U.S. domestic strategy,” Ardoino said on Wednesday. 

In April, Tether’s Ardoino told The Block that the stablecoin issuer had plans to launch a new U.S.-based stablecoin aimed specifically at institutional clients. 

Tether’s USDT is the world’s largest stablecoin with a total market capitalization of $162 billion, according to The Block’s price page. The new proposed stablecoin, however, would be geared toward institutions looking for faster settlements.

Ardoino told Bloomberg on Wednesday that Tether plans to make an announcement on the firm’s plans for U.S. institutional markets. 

“That is well underway,” Ardoino said. “We plan to announce it in the next couple of months.”

Tether has faced ongoing scrutiny for not providing a full independent audit of its stablecoin reserves, and instead has released quarterly attestations signed by BDO Italia. Last month, the company hired Simon McWilliams as its new chief financial officer to lead efforts toward securing a full audit. Ardoino has also said that obtaining a review from a Big Four audit firm — Deloitte, EY, PwC, or KPMG — is a “top priority.”

Stablecoin legislation

Ardoino appeared at Trump’s signing of a bill to regulate stablecoins called GENIUS last week in Washington. The bill creates a federal regulatory framework for fiat-pegged tokens, including a requirement for stablecoins to be fully backed by U.S. dollars or similarly liquid assets, and mandating annual audits for issuers with a market capitalization of more than $50 billion. It also establishes guidelines for foreign issuance.

In the U.S., Tether is likely to face increased competition as more traditional banks begin to make plans to launch their stablecoins, including companies co-owned by JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo. 

To that, Ardoino told Bloomberg that those competitors might be better than Tether in the short term in the U.S., but added that Tether has advantages. “They can compete and be probably maybe, maybe, better than us in the short term in the United States just because it’s a new market for us, but we have better technology,” Ardoino said. “We have a much better understanding of this market than anyone else.”

Ardoino was also asked whether Tether planned to go public like its competitor, Circle. He said Tether was not interested. 

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