He asks each employee to generate 100 million USD in profit: Tether CEO talks about the ultimate meaning of "stability".

Original Title: USDT Founder: Bitcoin, Gold, Stablecoin, & Tether, the Most Profitable Company in the World | EP 143

Original author: When Shift Happens

Original source:

Reprint: Mars Finance

Guest: Paolo Ardoino, Tether CEO & Bitfinex CTO

Host: Kevin Follonier

Release Date: October 16, 2025

Summary of Key Points

Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether ( and CTO of Bitfinex ), shared how he built one of the most profitable companies in the world—each employee generates an average of about 100 million USD in profit.

Tether has launched USDT, which is the most widely used stablecoin (Stablecoin) globally, providing financial support for approximately 3 billion people who lack access to banking services, especially in countries facing extreme inflation and financial crises.

Against the backdrop of an increasingly unstable global economy, Paolo founded a company dedicated to bringing stability through “democratized finance” and achieved extraordinary success. Last year, Tether's revenue reached 13.7 billion USD.

Highlights of Insights

I usually sleep at least 5 hours every night. But the problem is that my sleep is fragmented because I always keep notifications on, and I wake up every hour to check notifications before going back to sleep.

· My hometown is a small village with only 600 people, so entertainment activities are limited. I started learning programming at the age of 8, and this passion has continued through my university years and up to now.

· I personally have almost no hobbies. In fact, my only hobby is thinking about how to fulfill my mission and bring stability to the world.

· The existence of USDT is to provide financial stability to those in emerging markets who face extreme economic instability.

· Tether is not just a stablecoin company, but a stability company. This is exactly what Tether's mission is, and it is the true meaning of a “stability company”—a company with the ultimate goal of social stability.

What we need to do is to democratize access to finance and technology, allowing more people to participate directly through peer-to-peer technology and decentralized finance.

· Tether is a "once-in-a-century company that, unlike other companies attempting to build closed ecosystems, has a platform that is open to the whole world. This is a completely different business model and is the key to our success.

Everyone should have their own mission, no matter how big or small, as long as you are happy.

People usually use art to express emotions and thoughts, and I have come to understand that my way of expression is through programming. I can create my own world and invite people into my world through programming.

· Stablecoins are essentially the ultimate social network.

· We hope to demonstrate to the world through this financing ((200 billion) that Tether's mission goes far beyond this; our goal is to achieve 100 times growth. Tether has the capital, philosophy, and technological innovation to do anything we want.

If you create a product that can solve real-world problems, it has the potential to truly change the world.

· Football is a global sport that reaches people from all walks of life, regardless of wealth. Therefore, investing in football clubs is a simple way to connect with global users, and we hold 10% of shares in Serie A's Juventus Football Club.

The driving force of continuous effort

Kevin Follonier: Many of my guests have one thing in common, which is that they have experienced things in their lives that have created a sense of imbalance within them. So, is Tether's mission today related to something you felt was missing when you were young?

Paolo Ardoino: I consider myself very lucky. Although my family was not wealthy, I learned the most important lesson from them — to work hard. I remember my grandparents, who have passed away, but used to run a small farm in Italy. They focused on producing high-quality olive oil and tomatoes and paid great attention to detail. Whether it was tomatoes, sage, rosemary, or asparagus, they pursued excellence in everything, and this passion carried through their lives.

My grandfather gets up every morning at five, takes a nap at one in the afternoon, and continues working in the evening. This simple yet fulfilling life keeps him happy all the time. Although he only received a primary school education, he is very good at mathematics. My parents are also diligent role models. My mother is a kindergarten teacher, and my father is an ordinary employee who worked at a national energy company in Italy and later retired in Israel. They are still alive today, and I feel very lucky about that. After work, they take us to exercise and then return to the farm to help. You could say that from morning to night, our life consists of getting up, working hard, and completing tasks. But all of this is filled with passion. I have never heard them complain because, for them, this is where their mission lies.

Everyone should have their own mission, regardless of its size, as long as it brings happiness. So, when someone says to me, “Oh, you work very hard,” I will say, no, the meaning of hard work that I see goes far beyond that, I am definitely not just working hard.

My schedule is also very unique; I usually sleep at least 5 hours each night. But the problem is that my sleep is fragmented because I always keep notifications on, and I wake up every hour to check notifications before going back to sleep.

Kevin Follonier: You've been doing this for 11 years, sleeping 5 hours every night and waking up once every hour? Do you take naps during the day?

Paolo Ardoino: No. If I take a nap during the day, I feel groggy. So I never nap.

Started programming at age 8

Kevin Follonier: You started programming at 8 years old? What happened?

Paolo Ardoino: My father worked at the Italian National Energy Company. In the early 1990s, public enterprises in Italy began to introduce computers to improve efficiency and modernize. It is well known that Italy's bureaucracy is very complex, and many tasks are time-consuming, so the introduction of computers was significant for improving work efficiency. My father was passionate about these new technologies. I remember when I was 7 years old, he brought home a computer and told me that it was very expensive, costing the equivalent of his two months' salary. Although I didn't understand the concept of two months' salary at that time, he told me that this computer was very valuable and that I should be careful using it and not to break it.

As the only child in my family, I was naturally curious about this computer. We had floppy disks to play games, but due to financial reasons, we couldn't afford many games. Moreover, in Italy in 1991, it was also difficult to find gaming resources. My hometown is a small village with only 600 people, so entertainment options were limited. As time passed, I gradually became bored with the existing games, and the idea of creating my own games began to take shape. I asked my father if he could buy me a book on how to program and create games. He replied, “Well, Paolo, I can buy it, but this book costs 60,000 lire.”

In that era, Italy still used the lira as currency. He asked me, “Are you sure you want to buy this book? Because it's very expensive.” I said, “I want to learn.” Then he took the book home, and I began learning programming, a passion that continued through my university years and persists to this day.

The infinite possibilities of programming

Kevin Follonier: You mentioned that programming is a unique form of expression, distinct from other art forms, that can unleash human imagination and allow us to create entirely new worlds filled with infinite possibilities. Could you elaborate on your thoughts?

Paolo Ardoino: Of course. To be honest, I don't excel in traditional art forms. While I used to be a fairly good guitarist, I haven't played in years. And in other artistic fields, I can say I have no talent at all. For example, in school art classes, whether it was technical design or other hands-on projects, my work always appeared chaotic. I remember when I was drawing, my arms would flail too much, and the pencil would move randomly on the canvas, resulting in something that was always unsatisfactory. I also can't color, let alone sing, so I can say I can't even manage the most basic forms of artistic expression.

But people usually use art to express emotions and thoughts, while I realized that my way of expression is through programming. I can create my own world and invite people into my world through programming.

What are stablecoins & why are stablecoins so important

Kevin Follonier: You use programming to create stablecoins. What is a stablecoin? If you had to explain it to a mother, how would you say it?

Paolo Ardoino: Simply put, a stablecoin is a digitized currency, just like the numerical balance you see in your bank account. But the difference is that stablecoins use blockchain technology for transfers, rather than relying on the banking system. You can think of it as a “digital dollar” that can circulate freely around the world just like cash.

Blockchain is a decentralized technology, similar to a large database without borders, with its servers distributed around the world rather than being centralized in a single bank or institution. We use the best form of database—a decentralized database—to move USD.

Kevin Follonier: Why are stablecoins so important in our world?

Paolo Ardoino: The significance of stablecoins lies in their ability to provide solutions for billions of people around the world who lack access to financial services. These individuals often live in countries with high inflation, such as Europe, where inflation rates range from 30% to 34%, Turkey reaching 50%, Nigeria even higher, and Argentina sometimes exceeding 200%. In these countries, high inflation causes local currencies to depreciate rapidly, severely affecting people's purchasing power. Now, in 2025, everyone is interested in stablecoins.

In developed countries, such as the United States and Europe, the efficiency of the financial system is already very high. You may have bank accounts, credit cards, and payment tools like Cash App or PayPal, with almost no barriers to daily transactions. However, in some developing countries, the efficiency of the financial system may be only 5%, and many people cannot even open a bank account. Stablecoins, through blockchain technology, can enhance the financial efficiency in these areas to 60% or 70%. For people living in remote villages in Africa, this change is enormous; it not only allows them to participate in the global economy but also brings them more opportunities.

The Internet has begun to realize this connection; in fact, the Internet is a way to invite people into a global context, but without financial services, the Internet is meaningless. I believe stablecoins, in this sense, are actually the ultimate social network, because the currency of social networks, in my view, is the ultimate social network as it involves interpersonal interactions, peer-to-peer interactions, and it inherently contains value and the information you want to transfer.

The mission of Tether & to become a stable company

Kevin Follonier: So what is your mission?

Paolo Ardoino: My mission is to bring stability to the world. In a world that is gradually moving towards unrest and chaos, I believe stability is particularly important. This may sound a bit strange, but the success of Tether is actually closely related to the intensification of many global issues. If the financial system were fair, resources were accessible, and everything was functioning properly, then there would be no need for USDT. The existence of USDT is precisely to provide financial stability to those in emerging markets who are facing extreme economic instability.

As a developer, I believe we are positioning Tether as a leader in the technology field, not limited to finance but also including telecommunications, social media, and energy among other industries. Our goal is to make these industries more open and accessible through decentralized technology, just like we have done in the USD and financial sectors; this is the core mission of Tether. It is worth mentioning that most of the profits we earn are not distributed to shareholders, with about 95% of profits remaining within the company, invested in new things and new ideas to support our mission.

I personally have almost no hobbies. In fact, my only hobby is thinking about how to achieve this mission every day. I am very obsessed with this issue; I am the kind of person who gets deeply immersed in a certain field, which basically occupies my entire life.

Kevin Follonier: You mentioned in Docker Times that as global situations become increasingly unstable, Tether will continue to invest a portion of its profits into safe assets such as Bitcoin, gold, and land. So, what is a stable company?

Paolo Ardoino: I often think about what constitutes a true “stable company”? Once, a journalist asked me how to define Tether in a few words, and he tried to say that Tether is a stablecoin company. My response was that Tether is not just a stablecoin company, but a stable company.

In my opinion, the accessibility of technology and finance is key to social stability. If people can easily access technology and financial services, they will have less motivation to create chaos and instability. Often, the root of social unrest lies in people's dissatisfaction, which often stems from extremely difficult living conditions.

Of course, there are other reasons for social instability, but overall, I believe that global stability is closely related to the vast disparities between countries and regions. Over the past 20 to 30 years, although technology has attempted to narrow these gaps, it has, in fact, exacerbated inequality. The same situation occurs in the financial sector—about half of the global population cannot reliably access financial services, not even having the opportunity to open a bank account. This is not because they are untrustworthy, but because their level of poverty makes banks uninterested. This phenomenon is particularly evident in some African countries or Central America, leading to severe impacts on the stability of these regions, as the allocation of technological and financial resources is completely skewed towards a small number of wealthy groups.

What we need to do is to democratize access to finance and technology, allowing more people to participate directly through peer-to-peer technology and decentralized finance. I believe that as the lives, families, communities, and countries of people become more stable, they will have less motivation to create chaos. This is precisely the mission of Tether and the true meaning of a 'stable company'—a company with social stability as its ultimate goal. We have demonstrated that such companies can be established. Moreover, it is reassuring that the more we strive in this direction, the stronger the company's profitability will be.

This is also the reason I define Tether as a “once-in-a-century company.” This is not a boast, but because Tether's uniqueness lies in its ability to attract a broader user base the more it promotes open source, openness, and decentralization. These users utilize the tools provided by Tether to achieve financial freedom and freedom of speech, and the more widespread this process is, the more value the company's data can create. Unlike other companies that attempt to build closed ecosystems, Tether's platform is open to the entire world, which is a completely different business model and the key to our success.

Tether: The company with the highest profits for every employee globally

Kevin Follonier: You mentioned that Tether is one of the best companies in the world, with a profit margin of up to 99%. How did you build a company where each employee averages about 100 million USD in profit per year? Have you thought deeply about this question?

Paolo Ardoino: To be frank, I haven't particularly thought about such data. We have always focused on optimizing efficiency, and every time I do something, I ask myself: Why are we doing this? Is there a better way? How can we further improve efficiency? Two years ago, the Tether team had only 40 people, but with the expansion of our business, our current staff has grown to around 250 to 300 people, including a large number of developers, as we are expanding into new areas like artificial intelligence. However, the team responsible for core stablecoin management remains at around 100 people.

Of course, the current high interest rate environment greatly aids our profitability. Before 2022, global interest rates were relatively low, and this change was difficult to predict. Additionally, the impact of the pandemic was equally unexpected, and these factors combined have driven our profit growth. However, we believe that by continuously expanding into new business areas, we can help maintain a high level of profitability in the long term. Optimizing efficiency and seizing opportunities are key to our success.

Why raise 20 billion USD?

Kevin Follonier: You recently announced that you are considering raising $20 billion and valuing the company at $500 billion. If this funding comes through tomorrow, how do you plan to use it?

Paolo Ardoino: Last year we achieved a profit of 13.7 billion USD, and this year's performance is expected to be comparable. But I want to emphasize that our purpose in raising funds is not just to make money, but to convey an important message. Just like a line from the Joker in Batman: “It's not about money, it's about sending a message.” We hope to use this fundraising to show the world that Tether's mission goes far beyond this, and our goal is to achieve 100 times growth.

Once, in a public setting, I mentioned that I am a loyal fan of Peter Thiel and that I am reading his book “Zero to One.” However, it is no longer an era where startups can make huge profits simply through data growth. I would rather say that our goal is to start from the current foundation and move towards the “Zero to One Hundred” stage. I have vividly referred to it as “0.25” because we have just begun.

The reason I say this is that it's not about how much money we made, but about the potential we believe we need to seize, to express our views on this opportunity.

I define Tether as a once-in-a-century opportunity because I believe every company needs three things: philosophy, direction, and capital. First, you need to have a philosophy or belief that clearly defines what kind of company you want to become; second, you need to have the ability to innovate, whether in technology or other fields; third, you need to have capital. Most companies only possess one or two of these three elements. You can be a large-scale innovator with the right philosophy, but if you lack funding, you need to raise capital and seek out venture capital firms. However, the incentive mechanism of venture capital firms is to earn more money than they invest in you, which can lead to a deviation from your original project, philosophy, and ideas.

I believe that in this situation, Tether has the capital, philosophy, and technological innovation to do anything it wants. Therefore, the message we convey is that we have a lot to show, we want to grow significantly, and our vision is amazing. We hope to have partners join our company to help us achieve this unique and powerful vision, and we do not want to mess it all up.

Why did Tether invest in @Plasma?

Kevin Follonier: Tether recently invested in a company called Plasma, whose founder Paul had previously participated in our podcast and helped us build this platform. So, why is Plasma so important that Tether decided to invest in them?

Paolo Ardoino: I believe that Tether's USDT is not just a digital currency; it is also an important component of blockchain technology. Stablecoins are essentially digitalized dollars based on blockchain technology. However, over the past few years, there has been some deviation in the direction of blockchain technology development. Many developers are more focused on quickly launching hype-driven blockchain projects, like meme coins such as Dogecoin. While this approach may be effective in the short term, it does not truly promote the long-term development of the industry. Nevertheless, such projects have indeed allowed some teams to make money.

The success of USDT proves a fact: if you create a product that can solve real problems, it has the potential to truly change the world.

Therefore, I believe that blockchains based on stablecoins or focused on a specific use case can make the transfer of stablecoins very cheap and easy to use. For example, if you have stablecoins on Ethereum now, you still need to buy ETH as gas to transfer USDT, and this user experience needs improvement. I think that although the blockchain industry has developed for many years, the quality of user experience is still very low because we have focused our attention on the wrong things, only caring about our own “ecosystem,” which mainly consists of geeks and those who have time to learn new things. However, this approach does not apply to most ordinary people. This is also why USDT is so popular globally, as USDT does not cater to those who want to speculate.

An interesting statistic shows that 67% of USDT transactions are solely for transferring funds, while only 10% to 20% of transactions involving other stablecoins relate to transferring other assets. This indicates that the majority of users using USDT are simply looking to achieve a stable value of 1 dollar. In contrast, 80% of other stablecoin users are simultaneously transferring other assets, which suggests they are more inclined to trade assets in the DeFi space. Therefore, I would prefer USDT to serve the tens of millions of ordinary users living in Africa, rather than just meeting the needs of 10,000 bankers in New York.

Why does Tether own 10% of Juventus Football Club?

Kevin Follonier: Tether recently invested in Juventus Football Club, holding about 10% of the shares. This raises the question of why a company focused on stablecoins would choose to invest in a football club.

Paolo Ardoino: First of all, both Giancarlo and I are loyal fans of Juventus. Giancarlo is from the Piedmont region of Italy, and Juventus is the representative team of this land. I grew up near Genoa, about 80 to 100 kilometers from Turin. Many people from my hometown go to Piedmont for vacation, so Juventus has a huge influence. My father is a fan of Juventus, and I inherited his preference, just as Giancarlo did.

Another reason is that we believe the football industry in Italy needs modernization. In Italy, football clubs are often used by entrepreneurs as tools for power, as they typically own both media and clubs, using these resources for political activities. In contrast, we see investments in the football industry from countries like Saudi Arabia, as well as clubs like Chelsea, Manchester United, and Paris Saint-Germain, which already have hundreds of millions of fans globally. Football is a global sport that can reach people from all walks of life, regardless of wealth. Therefore, investing in football clubs is a straightforward way to connect with users worldwide.

We hope that football clubs in Italy can establish closer connections with fans, promote positive values, and achieve profitability through modern management practices. The success of a club should be based on the team's strength, match results, and interaction with fans. However, this model has not yet been truly realized in many clubs in Italy. Through our investment in Juventus, we hope to drive the transformation of the Italian football industry, making Juventus more international and forward-looking.