Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said in an interview that USDT may have started out as a cryptocurrency, but now it is the world's most used digital dollar.
Ardoino said that USDT is not just looking at the crypto market. In countries such as Argentina and Turkey, the stablecoin provides a lifeline as an alternative to volatile national currencies. Before USDT was widely adopted, people in inflation-ridden countries had to turn to the black market to obtain dollars.
He said: "USDT works much better outside the United States. In the United States, there are 15 different transmission layers for the US dollar. You have banks, credit cards, debit cards. You have Venmo, PayPal, Cash App, etc. But who needs a dollar? Imagine a person living in Haiti who makes $1.34 a day. How can they pay a $5 transaction fee? These markets can't afford to pay $5 or $6 per transaction on Ethereum or other chains."
Ardoino also discussed another angle where stablecoins intersect with geopolitics: Treasury bills. These debts provide support for USDT and can be easily converted into US dollars if USDT holders want to cash out. At the same time, interest payments will also flow into Tether's vaults.
He added: "We have increased the elasticity of dollar ownership, so now there is no country, one policymaker that can sell hundreds of billions of U.S. Treasury bills at one time. USDT and Tether are the dollar's best friends." (CoinDesk)