150 people made $14 billion in profits: Tether’s alchemy

Author: Bridget HarrisCompiled by: TechFlow

In 2024, Tether generated $14 billion in profits with only 150 employees, equivalent to $93 million per employee. This amazing efficiency has led many to believe that Tether may be the most efficient company in the world.

So how did this #stablecoin company achieve this feat?

Tether made $14 billion in profits last year, surpassing Pfizer, Tesla, and BlackRock. All of this was achieved without advertising or a large number of employees, but with a product that no one may have noticed - the stablecoin #USDT. Today, USDT has a circulation of $147 billion, far ahead of other stablecoins and has become the most widely used stablecoin in the world. Not only that, Tether is also the seventh largest buyer of #artificial intelligence, even surpassing countries and regions such as Canada, Taiwan, China and Norway. Whenever someone buys USDT, Tether uses the cash received to earn returns, which are mainly used to invest in U.S. Treasury bonds.

In 2024, Tether became the seventh-largest buyer of U.S. Treasuries, even surpassing countries such as Canada, Taiwan, and Norway. And its growth is still accelerating: the total issuance of USDT reached 45 billion last year, a year-on-year increase of 57%, while the number of USDT users increased by 13% in the first quarter of 2025.

Although Tether has been known for its low profile in the past, the company is now beginning to share more about its future vision as the U.S. regulatory environment shifts in its favor.

Stablecoins are essentially blockchain-based digital dollars that are pegged to the U.S. dollar at a 1:1 ratio. They provide the world with efficient access to dollars, both as a means of savings and significantly improving the efficiency of capital flows, especially in cross-border payments.

The second-largest stablecoin currently is Circle's USDC, with a circulation of $62 billion, less than half of USDT. USDC is more focused on payment compliance and institutional adoption. Unlike USDT, which dominates international markets with limited access to dollars, USDC - originally launched jointly by Coinbase and Circle - is more popular in the U.S. market.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino is a 40-year-old Italian computer scientist who calls himself a "simple guy" who doesn't care about competitors.

"They don't represent a real use case for stablecoins," he told Forbes earlier this month.

In his view,the core value of stablecoins is to provide people in economically unstable countries with a reliable and practical currency. For example, individuals in countries such as Argentina, Turkey and Nigeria, where the rapid devaluation of their currencies has made saving almost impossible, and therefore there is a desperate need to obtain US dollars.

Although the main use cases of USDT are still concentrated in emerging markets, Paul is also exploring the launch of a local stablecoin specifically for US institutions.

"How 'interesting' will this be for our competitors?" he joked in an interview with Forbes.

One ​​of the special features of Tether's business is its partnership with the legendary American financial institution Cantor Fitzgerald. A few years ago, when other American companies were reluctant to touch Tether, Cantor became its banking partner. At that time, Tether was controversial because some of the reserves behind USDT included Chinese corporate bonds.

Despite all the controversy, Cantor took the risk to establish a partnership with Tether. Cantor recently bought a 5% stake in Tether for $600 million, a valuation that is clearly at a significant discount. This move may be partly to thank Cantor for its early support. It is worth noting that Cantor's former chairman and CEO Howard Lutnick is now the Secretary of Commerce in the Trump administration.

At a recent Bitcoin conference, in response to criticism of Tether, Lutnick responded: "They say Tether is owned by the Chinese. In fact, it is owned by Giancarlo, who is Italian, and there is a difference between the two."

(Note: Giancarlo is Tether's chief financial officer and owns about 47% of Tether's shares. Source: Forbes)

What is the close relationship between Tether and Cantor, and what is behind this preferential deal? - The secret lies in Cantor's special status:

In practical terms, this means that if a large number of users try to exchange USDT for US dollars, Tether can immediately meet the demand. Because as a primary dealer, Cantor helps the Federal Reserve maintain liquidity in the government bond market, which gives Cantor direct access to the Federal Reserve. When Tether needs cash, Cantor can sell US Treasuries directly to the Federal Reserve without delays or middlemen.

In other words, Tether has the ability to obtain US dollars instantly through the world's safest and most liquid assets. This "firepower" is unmatched by any other stablecoin issuer.

Tether's strong position is not accidental. In 2022, Tether was attacked by Sam Bankman-Fried and his company FTX. They tried to cause a bank run-like crisis by accumulating billions of dollars of USDT and selling them in just two days. In the end, Tether successfully handled redemption demands of up to $7 billion - equivalent to 10% of the circulation at the time. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino pointed out in a recent "Odd Lots" show that a 10% run in 48 hours would be enough to bankrupt most financial institutions, but Tether was "unscathed."

In a sense, Tether is also somewhat resistant to fluctuations in U.S. Treasury rates: Generally, when interest rates fall, economic activity increases, which drives the growth of Tether's deposits and USDT circulation (although the yield may be lower, more funds can still bring considerable returns). When interest rates rise, Tether can directly increase profits through higher reserve yields.

Although the two may not completely offset each other, this structural dynamic is an advantage for Tether.

Tether's critics often accuse the company of never undergoing a formal audit and speculate that USDT may be used for crime and money laundering. In response, Paul usually cites some cases that show that illegal funds can often flow undetected in banks, credit card networks and payment processors until they enter the Tether system and are marked and frozen. Tether has assisted in more than 400 U.S. law enforcement actions to date and has worked with 230 agencies from 50 countries. Paul also believes that in regions such as South America and Africa, Tether is actually the last line of defense in the process of dollarization. In these regions, "there is almost no American presence," he mentioned on the "Odd Lots" show, "except McDonald's." "In these places, hospitals, schools, libraries and airports are all built by China," Paul said. He also mentioned that China is promoting a gold-backed digital currency to pay all employees of these infrastructure projects. If successful, this move will threaten the status of the US dollar as a reserve currency and ultimately weaken the global political influence of the United States.

In villages in Africa, Tether is building small stations with solar panels where people can rent batteries for 3 USDT per month. Electricity is extremely scarce in these areas, and 600 million people do not have access to reliable electricity. Considering that the average monthly salary in these villages is about 80 USD, this 3 USDT subscription service is very cost-effective for local residents. Similar initiatives have also appeared in South America, where small local stores have begun to accept USDT payments. These channels have not only become a grassroots distribution mechanism for USDT (good for Tether's business growth), but also invisibly promoted the global influence of the US dollar (good news for the US government).

Tether's ambitions are not limited to the stablecoin business. The company has also invested in artificial intelligence data centers, such as Northern Data, which has 24,000 GPUs. In addition, Tether is also developing a peer-to-peer (P2P) chat application called Keet.

Historically, the main problem with peer-to-peer applications has been poor user experience, which Tether is working to solve. “We are looking for solutions to the user experience (UX) problem, and ultimately we want to achieve the same user experience as WhatsApp - but completely P2P,” said Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino via Zoom conference. The Holepunch protocol that supports Keet is actually a widely applicable peer-to-peer standard that can be used to build a variety of decentralized systems.

"What if we could suddenly build a range of applications - from social media and messaging to enterprise applications, not only reducing infrastructure costs by 97%, but also improving privacy and ensuring that data belongs to its real users?"

In addition, Tether has developed a platform called Hadron for tokenizing assets; launched a self-custodial open source wallet; and invested in a brain-computer interface company.

In terms of the number of employees, the Tether team is small, with only 150 people, but the loyalty is very high. "When we were going through the most difficult times, no one on my team left," Paul mentioned at a Cantor crypto conference. He attributes this in part to Tether’s history of hiring primarily from emerging markets. “They know what’s important… They want to work for us because they see we’re really working on solving real problems that they have, not problems that the rich world thinks they have,” Paul explains. Paul believes that Tether is a once-in-a-generation company because it has been able to “separate building great technology from the need to make a profit.” In other words, the company can focus on innovation (not just USDT) without worrying about short-term profit pressure. Thanks to the rich revenue generated by USDT, Tether can afford to develop “the craziest technology” without having to rush to profit from it.

"We use our own technology as a distribution layer to support our 'golden goose', USDT. I don't think any other company can do this," said Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino in an interview.

"The more our technology can empower users, the more successful our core product will be. This is very different from traditional technology companies, which often need to trap users in a cage to sell more products."

The most comforting part of Tether's story is that its leadership has never forgotten the original intention of cryptocurrency. "Institutions will betray you for the benefit of a basis point (0.01%)," Paolo mentioned on the Odd Lots show. This attitude was once the consensus of the entire crypto community in the early days of the industry, but it is now gradually forgotten. Transferring power from exploitative institutions back to individuals is exactly what cryptocurrencies were created for. Interestingly, one of the wealthiest and most influential people in crypto today remains true to these original principles, while those who have abandoned them in pursuit of money have often failed and ended up in jail. It’s also rare that a company that’s making so much money can actually help a user group that doesn’t otherwise have access to stablecoins: people in emerging markets. And it all stems from Paul’s sincere belief: “I want Tether to be seen as… a positive contribution to the world.”

Talking about his vision for Tether, Paul said: “The past 20 years have been great for the Western world, but I don’t think the next 10 to 15 years will be as stable for the Western world. We are a stablecoin company… but maybe we are more of a ‘stability company’. Our technology is designed to bring stability to society, and this stability can start with currency.”