This week, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino engaged in an in-depth dialogue with American entrepreneur and Professional Capital Management founder and CEO Anthony Pomplian, discussing Tether's strategy for entering the US market, plans to launch a domestic stablecoin, and exploring areas such as AI, gold, and brain-computer interfaces. Paolo Ardoino also issued a warning about over-leveraged Bitcoin treasury companies.
The author has distilled and organized the key points:
What are Tether's plans in the US?
Paolo Ardoino: The recently passed Genius Act is driving Tether to explore the US market and creating a fair competitive environment for all financial institutions. Tether holds over $127 billion in US Treasury bonds, recently surpassing South Korea as the 18th largest US Treasury bondholder, and is expected to surpass another country by year-end. Although it sounds crazy compared to countries, this is a fact. We might be one of the best allies of the United States. Tether plans to launch a domestic stablecoin in the US. At that time, US banks and financial institutions will collaborate with Tether, leveraging its global distribution network to expand new customers and revenue sources.
For instance, financial infrastructure efficiency in Nigeria ranges between 10% to 20%, while in the US, it's 90%, almost perfect. Therefore, if Nigeria's financial transmission track quality can be improved to 50%, but in the US, it can only be enhanced from 90% to 95%. Since the underserved banking population in the US is relatively small, Tether's products for the US market must be unique.
What are the differences between USDT and Tether's US domestic stablecoin?
Paolo Ardoino: USDT primarily serves emerging markets (such as Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia), helping local users bypass inefficient financial infrastructure, more like an international stablecoin. However, USDT may not perform optimally in the US market.
The domestic stablecoin is designed specifically for the US market, optimizing user experience to adapt to the mature US financial system (such as collaborating with banks and improving payment efficiency).
In the future, hundreds of stablecoins might emerge in the US market, and at that time, the experience of migrating from one stablecoin to another will become crucial. User experience and distribution capabilities are precisely Tether's strengths.
How can stablecoin infrastructure/blockchain be improved or innovated?
Paolo Ardoino: User experience is the biggest limitation. You need a wallet, and the wallet must have enough gas fees to send stablecoins. Of course, account abstraction or other methods can be used, but it still cannot seamlessly pay gas fees with a stable value, instead requiring volatile assets (like ETH) for payment. This area needs improvement.
Commodity traders are all-in on stablecoins, recognizing their potential to enhance portfolio efficiency. The Genius Act will drive institutional adoption. Blockchains focusing on stablecoins, settlement, inter-bank settlement, and inter-corporate settlement will have a significant advantage.
Tether + AI
Paolo Ardoino: QVAC is one of the projects I'm passionate about, with the idea of creating a local AI inference and fine-tuning platform that can work anywhere, from embedded devices to smartphones, laptops, or servers. The smallest devices can be brain-computer interfaces, cars, drones, robots, and can even be taken to space or planets.
Therefore, AI must be lean, precise, modular, and localized. AI will be embedded in the structure of the universe itself in 20, 30, 100, or 10,000 years. Within the next five years, mobile GPUs might be 10 times more powerful than today. We hope to build the first truly decentralized, unstoppable AI platform.
We are trying to mimic the brain, attempting to create infinite, super-powerful data centers. QVAC will allow everyone to create efficient, small local models, and through peer-to-peer technology, connect all these models without a main server or any central server, so you can run queries across these models and obtain the best answers.
Tether will ultimately establish its own foundational model, but first, build a platform that can run any model, whether local or remote. Local inference is also a primary focus, and we are also researching peer-to-peer collaborative inference.
How do you view gold and Bitcoin?
Paolo Ardoino: I've said many times, nothing is better than Bitcoin. Bitcoin is perfect. Bitcoin holders mistakenly believe gold is Bitcoin's competitor, but that's not the case. If investors think Bitcoin is at a market cycle peak and want to temporarily exit, exchanging Bitcoin for gold is more reasonable than exchanging for US dollars, as gold better preserves purchasing power (dollars may be eroded by inflation). If a global financial reset occurs within the next 5 years (such as fiat system collapse), gold's $20 trillion market value (far exceeding Bitcoin's current scale) might make it a more traditionally acceptable transitional asset, while Bitcoin needs time to expand its scale.
How do you view Bitcoin treasury companies?
Paolo Ardoino acknowledged the market role of Bitcoin treasury companies but also expressed concerns about some aggressive strategies (such as over-leveraging). Ultimately, the industry will undergo reshuffling and consolidation.
Tether + Brain-Computer Interface
Paolo Ardoino: In late April 2024, Tether invested $200 million in Blackrock Neurotech. Blackrock Neurotech has the best brain-computer interface technology, possessing next-generation chip technology with 100 times performance improvement. Blackrock Neurotech is headquartered in Utah, with a very lean team.
Blackrock Neurotech is committed to ensuring brain-computer interface technology benefits and serves humanity while preventing robots from replacing humans.
What are your thoughts on the current macroeconomic situation?
Paolo Ardoino: The United States is currently in a very strong position, and is optimistic about the global trend of US dollar stablecoins. The US has achieved its interests through tariff policies, which, although potentially negatively impacting other countries, have a significant short-term economic boost. Europe started early in digital asset regulation but has been ineffective, failing to seize technological opportunities to expand the euro's global influence. Currencies in impoverished countries will depreciate, and economic vulnerability will increase, while tools like USDT provide a "Plan B" for people in these regions, mitigating the impact of local currency fluctuations. Tether is not only investing in gold but also venturing into land and agriculture, AI, brain-computer interfaces, and other areas.
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