Bitcoin mining, TradFi and commodity trading

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino revealed some of the stablecoin firm’s recent investments in sectors ranging from Bitcoin mining and TradFi to commodity trading payments.

During an interview at the Ascension Conference in Prague on December 5, Paolo Ardoino stated that Tether (USDT) has made more than $13 billion in profits. Tether now has a market cap of more than $135 billion and more than $6 billion in excess capital. These funds are being used to expand Tether’s ever-growing stablecoin investment portfolio.

“When stablecoin and the rest are invested in different areas outside of custodians as a separate perspective from a separate company called Tether investments,” Ardoino said.

One of these areas is Bitcoin (BTC) mining. Ardoino explained that he and the Tether team are “big fans” of Bitcoin mining and want to actively participate in securing Bitcoin’s limited supply so that it does not become decentralized. He admitted that Tether has invested in Bitcoin mining firms in Central and South America, as well as smaller countries.

“We cannot rely on two or three companies, 90% of whom are miners, to mine Bitcoin. That’s why we need to add additional powers from around the world to make Bitcoin safe. So this is one of our major immature investments,” Ardoino said.

Another area of ​​interest for Tether is TradFi and coin trading. He said Tether has launched several deals in the TradFi world, acting as a “short-term lender” for people in different operations.

Additionally, Ardoino said Tether is exploring the use of Tether in cross-border payments, particularly in commodity trading. He believes stablecoins could be a “game changer” in the commodity trading space as they could greatly simplify the payment process.

Compared to regular credit transfers, which often take longer, USDT arrives much faster once sent via the blockchain, with payment confirmed in just a few seconds.

“So this is one of the areas where we plan to devote a lot of resources because we can see how USDT can be a game changer,” Ardoino said.

In addition, Tether also invests in “small companies around the world,” many of which are located in developing countries in emerging markets. Other investments Tether has maintained from past deals include brain-computer interface technology company Blackrock Neurotech and artificial intelligence infrastructure company Northern Data Group.