150 people generate $14 billion in profits, how did Tether do it

Author: Bridget Harris

Compiled by: TechFlow

In 2024, Tether generated $14 billion in profits with just 150 employees, equivalent to $93 million per employee. This amazing efficiency leads many to think that Tether is probably the most efficient company in the world.

So, how did this stablecoin company achieve this feat?

Tether made $14 billion in profits last year, surpassing Pfizer, Tesla and BlackRock. All of this is achieved without relying on advertising or large number of employees. It only relies on a product that everyone may not pay much attention to - stablecoin USDT.

Today, USDT's circulation has reached US$147 billion, far ahead of other stablecoins and become the most widely used stablecoin in the world. Not only that, Tether has also launched ambitious explorations in areas such as artificial intelligence, private communications and neurotechnology.

Whenever someone buys USDT, Tether uses the cash he receives to earn income, which is mainly used to invest in U.S. Treasury bonds.

In 2024, Tether became the seventh largest buyer of U.S. Treasury bonds , even surpassing countries such as Canada, Taiwan and Norway. And its growth rate is still accelerating: USDT's total issuance reached US$45 billion last year, a year-on-year increase of 57%, while USDT's subsidiaries increased by 13% in the first quarter of 2025.

Although Tether has been known for being low-key, the company is now starting to share its vision for the future as the U.S. regulatory environment shifts in a direction that is beneficial to it.

Stablecoins are essentially digital dollars issued on a blockchain basis, and are pegged to the dollar at a 1:1 ratio. They provide the world with an effective way to obtain US dollars, both as a means of saving and significantly improve the efficiency of capital flows, especially in cross-border payments.

The second-ranked stablecoin is Circle's USDC, with a circulation of US$62 billion, less than half of USDT. USDC is more focused on payment compliance and institutional adoption. Unlike USDT's dominance in the international market where USD access is limited, USDC -- originally launched by Coinbase and Circle -- is more popular in the U.S. market.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino is a 40-year-old Italian computer scientist who claims to be a "simple person" and doesn't care about competitors.

"They don't represent the real use case of stablecoins," he said in an interview with Forbes earlier this month.

In his opinion, the core value of stablecoins is to provide people in economically unstable countries with a reliable and practical currency. For example, individuals from countries such as Argentina, Türkiye and Nigeria. These regions have almost become impossible to save due to the rapid depreciation of their local currencies, and therefore urgently need to obtain US dollars.

Although the main use scenarios of USDT are still concentrated in emerging markets, Paul is also exploring the launch of a local stablecoin dedicated to US institutions.

"How 'interesting' would this be for our competitors?" he teased in an interview with Forbes.

One of the special features of Tether's business is its partnership with Cantor Fitzgerald, a legendary American financial institution. Cantor became its banking partner a few years ago when other U.S. companies were reluctant to contact Tether. At the time, Tether was controversial because some of the reserves behind USDT included Chinese corporate bonds.

Despite all the controversies, Cantor risked establishing a collaboration with Tether. Recently, Cantor bought a 5% stake in Tether for $600 million, and this valuation is obviously a significant discount. This move is perhaps partly to thank Cantor for his support in the early days. It is worth noting that Cantor 's former chairman and CEO Howard Lutnick is currently the Secretary of Commerce of the Trump administration.

In a recent Bitcoin conference, in response to outside criticism of Tether, Rutnik responded: "They said Tether is owned by Chinese. In fact, it is owned by Giancarlo, who is Italian, and there is a difference between the two."

(Note: Giancarlo is Tether's chief financial officer and owns approximately 47% of Tether's shares. Source: Forbes )

What’s the close relationship between Tether and Cantor and what’s behind this deal? ——The secret lies in Cantor’s special identity: it is one of only 24 first-tier dealers in the United States that can trade directly with the Federal Reserve .

In practice, this means that if a large number of users try to convert USDT into USD, Tether can meet the demand immediately. Because as a primary trader, Cantor helps the Fed maintain liquidity in the government bond market, which gives Cantor a channel for direct transactions with the Fed. When Tether needs cash, Cantor can sell U.S. Treasuries directly to the Fed without delays or middlemen.

In other words, Tether has gained the ability to instantly obtain US dollars through the world's safest and most liquid assets. This "firepower" is beyond the reach of any other stablecoin issuer.

Tether’s strong position is no accident. In 2022, Tether was attacked by Sam Bankman-Fried and his company FTX. They attempted to trigger a bank run-like crisis by accumulating billions of USDT in just two days and selling it. In the end, Tether successfully responded to a demand for redemption of up to $7 billion — equivalent to 10% of the circulation at that time.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino noted in a recent Odd Lots that a 10% run within 48 hours was enough to bankrupt most financial institutions, while Tether was “unscathed.”

In a sense, Tether also has some resistance to fluctuations in U.S. Treasury rates: Generally, when interest rates fall, economic activity increases, which drives growth in Tether's deposits and USDT circulation (although yields may decrease, more funds can still bring considerable returns). When interest rates rise, Tether can directly increase profits through higher reserve yields.

Although both may not necessarily offset completely, this structural dynamic is an advantage for Tether.

Tether’s critics often accuse companies of never undergoing formal audits and speculate that USDT may be used for crime and money laundering. In this regard, Paul usually gives some cases of illegal funds often flow unconsciously in banks, credit card networks, and payment processors, and are not marked and frozen until they enter the Tether system. Tether has assisted the U.S. with more than 400 enforcement operations to date and has worked with 230 agencies from 50 countries.

Paul also believes that in regions such as South America and Africa, Tether is actually the last line of defense in the process of dollarization. In these areas, “there is almost no presence in the United States,” he mentioned on the Odd Lots, “except McDonald’s.”

“In these places, hospitals, schools, libraries and airports are all built by China,” Paul said. He also mentioned that China is promoting a gold-backed digital currency to pay for all employees in these infrastructure projects. If successful, this move would threaten the US dollar's position as a reserve currency and ultimately weaken the US's global political influence.

In villages in Africa, Tether is building a small site with solar panels for people to rent batteries at a price of 3 USDT per month. In these areas, electricity resources are extremely scarce, with 600 million people not able to access reliable power supplies. Considering that the average monthly salary of these villages is about $80, this 3 USDT subscription service is very cost-effective for local residents. Similar moves have also emerged in South America, where small local stores have begun accepting USDT payments. These channels not only become USDT's grassroots distribution mechanism (which is conducive to Tether's business growth), but also invisibly promote the global influence of the US dollar (good news for the US government).

Tether's ambitions are not limited to the stablecoin business. The company also invests in artificial intelligence data centers, such as Northern Data, which has 24,000 GPUs. In addition, Tether is developing a peer-to-peer (P2P) chat application called Keet.

Historically, the main problem with peer-to-peer applications is the poor user experience, and Tether is working on solving this problem. “We are looking for solutions to the user experience (UX) problem and ultimately hope to achieve the same user experience as WhatsApp — but totally P2P,” said Paolo Ardoino, Tether CEO, via Zoom conference. The Holepunch protocol that supports Keet is actually a widely applicable peer-to-peer standard that can be used to build a variety of decentralized systems.

“What if we could suddenly build a range of applications – from social media, messaging to enterprise applications – not only reduce infrastructure costs by 97%, but also improve privacy and ensure data belongs to its real users?”

In addition, Tether has developed a platform called Hadron for tokenization of assets; launched a self-hosted open source wallet; and invested in a brain-computer interface company.

Judging from the number of employees, the Tether team is small, with only 150 people, but its loyalty is very high. “When we were going through the toughest moments, no one on my team left,” Paul mentioned at a Cantor crypto conference.

He attributes this in part to Tether’s former employing talent from emerging markets . “They know what is the most important thing… They are willing to work for us because they see that we are really working to solve the real problems they are facing, not those problems that the wealthy world thinks they have,” Paul explained.

Paul believes that Tether is a company that is rare in a century because it can "separate the need to build excellent technology from profitability." In other words, companies can focus on innovation (not limited to USDT) without worrying about short-term profit pressures. Thanks to the huge revenues brought by USDT, Tether has the ability to develop the “craziest technology” without rushing to profit from it.

“We use the technology we developed as a distribution layer to support our 'golden goose' - USDT. I don't think any other company can do that,” Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said in an interview.

“The more our technology empowers users, the more successful our core products will be. This is very different from traditional tech companies – they often need to trap users in a cage in order to sell more products.”

The most gratifying part of Tether’s story is that its leadership has never forgotten the original intention of cryptocurrency. “Institutions will betray you for a basis point (0.01%) benefit,” Paul mentioned on the Odd Lots program. This attitude was once a consensus among the entire crypto community in the early days of the industry, but is now gradually forgotten. Transferring power from exploitative institutions back to individuals is exactly the original intention of cryptocurrency .

Interestingly, one of the richest and most influential people in the crypto field today remains faithful to these initial principles, while those who turn their back on their original aspirations in pursuit of money often end up in failure and even go to jail. It is also rare that a company that makes money can actually help the user community in this way: those who have no access to stable currencies in emerging markets. And it all stems from Paul’s sincere belief: “I hope Tether is seen as… a positive contribution to the world.”

Speaking about his vision for Tether, Paul said: "The last 20 years have been very good for the Western world, but I don't think the next 10 to 15 will be equally stable for the Western world. We are a stablecoin company... but maybe we are even more 'stable companies'. Our technology is designed to bring stability to society, and that stability can start with currency."