Source: CNBC
Compiled by: MD, Bright Company
During the global Bit conference in late May, Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, the world's largest stablecoin issuer, was interviewed by CNBC.
In his speech at the Bitcoin conference, Paolo Ardoino said that USDT has approximately 420 million users in emerging markets and developing countries, accounting for 62% of decentralized trading volume. "More significantly, about 35% of USDT users use it as a savings account—because they live in countries with severe currency depreciation like Turkey, Argentina, and Vietnam, where they can only choose to save in US dollars, and USDT is their most realistic option."
According to Coingecko data on June 18, USDT's total market value is approximately $155 billion, with a trading volume of about $27.7 billion in the past 24 hours, making it the world's largest stablecoin issuer; the recently listed "first stablecoin stock" Circle (CRCL.US) has a total market value of about $61.5 billion for USDC, with a trading volume of approximately $9.2 billion in the past 24 hours.
However, market analysis suggests that under the framework of the Genius Act (the Guiding and Establishing US Stablecoin National Innovation Act, passed by the US Senate on June 17 and awaiting review by the US House of Representatives), Tether's compliance is lower than Circle's, which is one reason why Circle was prioritized for listing. Paolo Ardoino also responded to questions about "offshore structures" and auditing in the interview, stating that he has had good communication with the Big Four accounting firms, but also noted that "this will be a long journey".
It is worth mentioning that Paolo Ardoino specifically shared Tether's investment logic in agriculture, dairy, video platforms, and brain-computer interface technologies.
According to Tether's website, the company announced the acquisition of Latin American agricultural enterprise Adecoagro on April 30 this year, whose main business covers sugar, ethanol, dairy, and crop production in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, with 210,400 hectares of farmland and multiple industrial facilities in these countries.
In the interview, Paolo Ardoino stated, "We are exploring how to demonstrate to agricultural enterprises and commodity producers (such as wheat, rice, milk, etc.) how to use stablecoins for international trade. For example, Adecoagro sells products to Asia and the United States, and to make these sales more efficient, they are beginning to consider using stablecoins to complete transactions."
Tether's latest investment is the acquisition of a 31.9% stake in the Canadian gold royalty company Elemental Altus Royalties on June 12. Tether stated that this investment is to "integrate long-term stable assets like gold and Bit" into its ecosystem, serving both as a hedging method and part of its commitment to building a resilient digital economic infrastructure.
(The rest of the translation follows the same professional and accurate approach)Paolo: I love competition. But I believe that competition will mainly focus on competing with our second-largest competitor, Circle, rather than us. The reason is that all companies announcing stablecoin plans come from traditional financial systems. The success of USDT lies in our understanding that 3 billion people in the world do not have bank accounts. These people are not bad, they are very good, just not noticed by banks due to poverty. To interest banks, you must contribute at least $150 in fees and commissions annually. But if you live in a country with a daily per capita income of $1.34, or in Africa with a monthly salary of only $80, you cannot possibly give banks $150 a year. So all stablecoins created by traditional financial companies will be offered to their existing customers. We serve 3 billion people - these 3 billion people are viewed as a "niche market" by the banking system. Many competitors say Tether serves the bank's "niche market", but half the world's population should not be called "niche". We built ourselves through grassroots efforts. We have established many service kiosks in Africa, and by 2030, we will have 100,000 kiosks in Africa, providing power to people in small African villages through solar panels. We already have hundreds of thousands of touchpoints in Latin America, providing stablecoin and Bitcoin education.
[The rest of the translation follows the same professional and accurate approach, maintaining the original meaning and tone while translating to English.]
