Tether Will Stay Focused on Foreign Markets While US Deals With Regulations, According to CEO Paolo Ardoino: Report

Tether chief executive Paolo Ardoino reportedly says that the stablecoin issuer will stay focused on foreign markets as a stablecoin regulatory bill works through Congress.

According to a new report by Bloomberg, Ardoino says that even though the Genius Act, an industry-backed bill to regulate dollar-pegged crypto assets in the US, is making its way through Congress, Tether will remain focused overseas.

“It is important for us to see how the Genius Act is distinguishing between foreign issuers and domestic issuers. For us, the main interest will remain outside of the US. We are looking at the Genius Act in a way that will allow us to be compliant. We can be compliant while still having a strong focus on foreign markets.”

Tether, which is based in El Salvador, is the largest stablecoin issuer in the world but stopped serving customers in the US in 2018.

However, the report says that if Tether were to focus on the US, it may run into issues such as backing USDT with Bitcoin (BTC), which currently isn’t allowed due to regulations.

Ardoino goes on to say that since Tether isn’t focused on the US, the firm isn’t worried about major banks – such as JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo – venturing into the world of stablecoins and issuing their own.

“We are not worried about the competitors coming from big banks, because they will look at the Western world. Our customer base are the 3 billion people unbanked that are not touching the banking system.”