Ardoino describes a world where bottom-up adoption has overtaken the cautious pace of regulators and central banks. In places like Nigeria, Argentina and Turkey, families and small businesses use USDT not for speculation but survival, hedging against inflation and broken payment systems. That makes Tether less a crypto tool than a parallel financial network built from necessity.
Yet what fascinates me is how Tether is now turning its profits — more than $13 billion a year — toward building the next layer of digital infrastructure: AI, data, energy and education. Ardoino sees stablecoins as programmable money that will power both human and machine economies. He speaks not of tokens, but of systems — from Bitcoin mining to AI agents capable of transacting autonomously.
Where regulators still debate definitions, Tether has already become part of the plumbing of global finance. Whether it can pair that reach with trust and transparency will decide if it remains a disruptor or evolves into an institution.
👉 Watch my full conversation with Paolo Ardoino, then read the detailed article on The Asian Banker by clicking here.


