Tether CTO: 'Other flavors of Tether' will link users to USDT

According to Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s decision to launch a new digital asset pegged to the Mexican peso will provide more access to the USDT stablecoin, a boon for cryptocurrency adoption in the Latin American country.

In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum summit, the Tether and Bitfinex CTO said the reason he came to Davos was to demonstrate the utility of cryptocurrencies.

"I didn't go to Davos to meet the CEOs of the big banks," he said. “We’re here to get our message across [that] there’s a big world out there that needs secure cryptocurrencies.”

Paolo Ardoino, chief technology officer of Tether, said that the increased demand for cryptocurrencies in the Latin American region drove their decision to expand.

— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) May 26, 2022

Tether has seen growing demand for cryptocurrency and stablecoin products in Mexico, especially among enterprises. To meet this demand, the company announced Thursday that it will launch a new peso-backed stablecoin on the Ethereum (ETH), Tron (TRX) and Polygon (MATIC) networks. Ardoino confirmed to Cointelegraph that the “MXNT” trading pair will begin trading on Bitfinex next week.

Describing USDT as a bridge to Bitcoin (BTC), Ardoino said he believes the dollar-pegged stablecoin will succeed in attracting the next 2 billion crypto users. However, in order for more people to use USDT, his company must partner with local banks to offer “other types of Tether.”

Asked about the prospect of Mexico adopting bitcoin as legal tender, a distinct possibility after a Mexican senator floated the idea of crypto regulation under El Salvador's bitcoin law, Ardoino said he was "bullish that many countries need The sooner the better, [accepting] bitcoin.”

A Mexican senator has renewed his efforts to make bitcoin legal tender in Mexico, arguing that bitcoin adoption could drive global financial inclusion.

— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) February 23, 2022

"De facto legal tender". However, Bitcoin’s path to legal tender in Mexico will be more complicated than in El Salvador, which already has an official currency. As a result, he said, while bitcoin may not achieve legal tender status anytime soon, it could become a "de facto legal tender" alongside the peso.