Tether’s Paolo Ardoino on Stablecoins Becoming Key to Trump's Tariff Strategy

At the same time President Trump was holding up a poster board in the White House Rose Garden to reveal America's most aggressive tariff strategy in a century, a key House Committee was in the final innings of a 13-hour long heated debate on a stablecoin bill that's been nearly a decade in the making.

It's not coincidence. And if you ask the CEO behind the world's largest stablecoin, Tether, what happens next is crucial to Trump's plans to reset economic rules on the global stage and maintain American dominance.

Speaking with Coinage from Cantor Fitzgerald's New York offices, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino laid out how the stablecoin issuer has become a critical ally and emerging buyer of US debt — just as Trump goes for China's jugular on trade, despite the country being one of the largest holders of US debt.

Over the years, Tether has emerged as one of the largest new buyers of US Treasuries to back their USDT stablecoin. It's staggering to consider, but Tether was just behind the United Kingdom in 2024 as a buyer of US debt. And as Trump unleashes new tariffs on the world to try and rebalance trade deficits and foster a boom in US manufacturing, stablecoins "exporting" dollars around the world may very well become the Trump administration's secret weapon.

"You want, as the US, to dollarize the emerging markets," Ardoino explains. "You don't want one single guy like Xi Jinping to buy your entire debt. You want hundreds of millions of people that will never wake up one single morning all together, thinking, 'Oh, now we will sell that debt,' right?"

If that's true, there are many stablecoin issuers effectively doing the same thing by selling digital dollars to people. The Coinbase-aligned issuer of the USDC stablecoin just filed this week to go public. As Coinage has covered, Trump's World Liberty Financial just threw their hat into the ring with their own USD1 stablecoin. That was something Ardoino says he didn't see coming, but welcomes, as Tether looks to work within the Trump plans to continue using the dollar to grow American influence around the world.

"You don't want to do that from the government-side point of view, you want to do it from the people point of view, building grassroots, bottom-up approaches so that you are effectively controlling the financial rails of the entire world," Ardoino says, adding that he expects Tether to make even more than the $13 billion the company made last year.

To put it mildly, the market for stablecoins is about to explode. Congress is currently working to approve similar bills in the House and the Senate that would finally grant rules of the road for stablecoin issuers at the same time regulators are giving the green light to let banks hold them. Most stablecoins will be forced to back their digital dollars with cash and short-term US Treasuries. Interestingly, it appears that Tether, which backs its stablecoins with a mix of assets, including Bitcoin, will be given a two-year period to comply with whatever rules Congress lands on as an issuer registered outside the US.

Democrats in the House Financial Services Committee this week became increasingly vocal over issues with the STABLE Act, including conflicts of interest that arise from the President's family effectively steering the USD1 stablecoin and Tether working with the company Trump's Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick founded in Cantor Fitzgerald to store their Treasury holdings. Ardoino pushed back on the optics, noting that it's not like Tether has been trying to hide offshore — nor would the company ever seek to replicate potential games China has played in the past as Tether becomes a growing holder of US debt.

"One thing that I tell everyone [is] we keep our money in the US so it's not like we can hide," Ardoino says. "Are we going to muscle against the US? I mean we don't have an army, we keep our money in Cantor Fitzgerald. The US has basically a kill switch on Tether. I think that is the perfect check and balances."

But make no mistake, Ardoino is acutely aware of the leverage it has over its stablecoin competitors. Notably, Tether has focused its attention outside the US, while many players like Circle's USDC or Ripple's RLUSD have not. As Ardoino explains, that becomes a pretty key piece of working with the Trump administration to battle China's efforts to grow its influence around the world.

Case in point: Even in El Salvador, where Tether is based, the stunningly beautiful National Library in downtown San Salvador has a glowing neon sign that proudly notes "assistance from China for a shared future." China paid more than $50 million to help establish the library in 2023 as the largest in Central America. As Central and South America seek dollars, Tether becomes an interesting partner. Particularly in Argentina, where the peso has suffered from hyperinflation before President Javier Milei took office, citizens are increasingly turning to stablecoins.

As that happens, it's not incredibly difficult to see stablecoins becoming more and more powerful in taking on China's attempts at creating its own digital currency that could be used just as easily in markets they can establish their will. But if digital dollars are to win out, Ardoino explains that it could solve both of those problems for the US — continued wins against China in the race to preserve global influence, and finding new buyers for US debt as it surpasses $36 trillion.

"If you do the math, you would need $100,000 per person in the US to cover the $36 trillion," Ardoino says. "What you should be doing is to find 3.6 billion people, each one of them will hold $10,000 USDT and you cover the entire U.S. debt. Seems crazy. It's not that crazy."

Crazy or not, it certainly seems less far-fetched as Congress is finally expected to finalize its stablecoin bills in short order. How those final tweaks to the language in the bills gets done remains to be seen, but the strategy is already shaping up. If you follow where the Trump family and Trump's Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have focused their attention, it's increasingly obvious that this will be the playbook. The dollar has already been getting into more hands around the world via stablecoins. Now, it appears one of those stablecoins could be the President's own along with Tether and others.

But Ardoino remains unshaken and unworried he might stand to concede the lead Tether has built as the world's largest stablecoin to new challengers or its existing competitor in Circle's USDC.

"To see that S-1 is the best thing that could happen to Tether recently," he said. "I could say that there is no second-best with extreme confidence now."

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