Paolo Ardoino says he is a simple man. He visited the U.S. for the first time this month, and took delight in New York’s Central Park Zoo and seeing the Empire State Building, which made him recall the Ghostbusters movie of his childhood. Ardoino says he feels at home here and that he wants to use his company, Tether, to help America stay on top.
It’s a lovely sentiment. But Tether is no ordinary firm, and not everyone is sure it has the best interests of the U.S. at heart. That’s because Tether’s business involves amassing billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. Treasury bills to issue USDT—a type of cryptocurrency known as a stablecoin that is backed one to one with U.S. dollars. Critics of Tether, which is headquartered in El Salvador and has in the past been lax when it comes to anti-money-laundering measures, worry the company and its hoard of T-bills could one day pose a financial or geopolitical threat.
