Lugano, Switzerland – Tether, the crypto company behind USDT, the world’s largest stablecoin Tether is planning new investments to bring its US-focused US dollar stablecoin to a 100 million US user base, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said in an interview on Friday.
Ardoino said the USAT token, designed specifically for the US market to comply with federal regulations set by the requirements of the Genius Act, is set to launch this December. It is issued by Tether America, a joint venture between Tether and regulated US crypto bank Anchorage Digital.
A key element of the upcoming token distribution for Tether is Rumble (RUM), the video sharing platform Tether invested $775 million in last year, and its upcoming crypto wallet will also be revealed later this year. Ardoino said Rumble has 51 million active monthly users in the US alone who could potentially join for the USAT token.
“We are investing in two-three companies which will bring this number to Rs 51 million to Rs 100 million,” he said.
Without naming specific firms, he said investment targets could include social media companies, content platforms similar to Rumble as Tether aims to position its USAT token for payments in the maker economy.
“For the US market, you need to create a more professional and digital approach to money that can compete with PayPal and so on,” he said. “The beauty is that we already have a user base that will use that money in the economy […] So this offer will be unbeatable.”
“We’re going to hit the ground running, and we’re going to start taking away market share from our competitors who tried to kill us in the first place,” Ardoino said.
Read More: Tether unveils USAT stablecoin for US market, names Bo Hines to lead new division
gold Rush
Tether, although still primarily focused on emerging markets where dollar access is limited, is benefiting from rapid stablecoin adoption, partly bolstered by regulatory advancements such as the GENIUS Act in the US that allows digital tokens to become more embedded in global payments. The supply of USDT, the company’s flagship token, soared to $182 billion, up by a third since the beginning of the year and dominating the asset class by nearly $300 billion. Circle (CRCL) Token Currently ranked second with $72 billion, an increase of nearly 70% this year.
The firm’s other token, meanwhile, is backed by physical gold. There has also been a surge in the past months as the yellow metal has reached new all-time highs. XAUT’s market cap grew to a record $2.2 billion, more than tripling from the beginning of the year.
Ardoino said this growth largely comes from retail demand.
“We are seeing retail sales now taking off in Central and South America and Asia, and learning about tokenized gold is beginning to take off,” he said. Due to the retail frenzy for gold, market makers also increasingly exploited tokenized gold because they could sell them in secondary markets for larger spreads with CME futures on the other side of the trade.
Nasdaq-listed firm Prestige Wealth recently raised $150 million backed by Bitcoin Lender Entalfa is also increasing demand for Tether tokenized gold deposits.
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