Stablecoin giant Tether has appointed the company’s chief technology officer (CTO) Paolo Ardoino as CEO, taking over the role previously held by Jean-Louis van de Velde (JL).
Original title: Tether CEO Steps Down, Naming Paolo Ardoino as Successor at Stablecoin Issuer
Original author: Andrew Throuvalas
Original source: decrypt.co
Compiled by: defi.io community
Stablecoin giant Tether has appointed the company’s chief technology officer (CTO) Paolo Ardoino as CEO, taking over the role previously held by Jean-Louis van de Velde (JL).
Ardoino will officially assume the leadership role starting in December, while continuing to serve as chief technology officer. Additionally, he is the CTO of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex and the chief strategy officer of application development platform Holepunch.
Meanwhile, van der Velde will continue to serve as an advisor while retaining his position as CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, where he has been at the helm since 2013.
Van der Velde said in a press release issued by Tether: "Paul is ideally suited to lead Tether into this exciting new era. I am confident that Tether will continue to maintain rapid growth and continue to focus on emerging markets and transformative technologies."
Tether is the world's largest issuer of "stablecoins" -- cryptographic tokens backed by relatively stable-price assets such as precious metals or fiat currencies. Its most popular U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, USDT, has a market capitalization of more than $83 billion and is backed by much larger reserves, according to the company's report.
Ardoino has nearly 200,000 followers on X (Twitter) and has been the public face of Tether for many years, attending meetings and making public statements on behalf of the company.
"One of his most notable achievements was co-leading a strategy that resulted in significant growth in Tether's market influence and market capitalization," Tether wrote.
He also wrote many spicy press releases aimed at dispelling what news organizations called "disinformation." He often gets into arguments with users on Twitter, such as a former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawyer who took issue with Tether’s reserves. In many ways, Adorno has been the voice of stablecoin issuers for years.
While questions have persisted about the transparency and security of the company’s reserve composition, USDT has yet to lose its peg to the U.S. dollar for a sustained period of time since its launch in 2014.
But analysts did note "minor depreciation" during much of August as of late. After the collapse of algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) in May 2022, Ardoino challenged frightened investors to "let them do it." Later, it briefly pushed the price of the stablecoin as high as $0.95 as USDT faced billions of dollars in redemptions.
