Tether targets market dominance via its distribution network, with new stablecoin set for Q1 2026
It doesn’t make sense to create a stablecoin for every country. Only a few nations are strategically suited for such a move, and Korea is one of them, according to Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino.
“While the world goes toward more and more tech, the biggest tech players are basically you guys (Korea) and a couple of other countries,” Ardoino told The Korea Times in a recent video interview.
“So I think the Korean won is going to be one of the most important currencies for settling transactions and tech-related commodity trades, as well as international agreements for access to new technology,” he added.
Tether is the issuer of USDT, the world’s largest and most widely used stablecoin.
Each USDT is pegged to the U.S. dollar. For every token issued, Tether holds an equivalent amount of assets — such as cash or U.S. Treasury bills — to ensure full backing. This mechanism helps maintain price stability and minimize the volatility typical of other cryptocurrencies.
Stablecoins like USDT are expected to expand financial access in developing economies and improve the efficiency of cross-border remittances by cutting costs and settlement times through blockchain technology.
Tether dominates the stablecoin market, accounting for 60 percent of global share. It boasts a market capitalization of $174 billion. On average, 17 million USDT tokens are transferred daily, with a transaction volume reaching $45 billion. As of July, Tether held more U.S. Treasury bonds than the entire nation of Korea.
Ardoino took over as CEO in October 2023, following his tenure as chief technology officer. In 2024, the company reported $13.7 billion in profits, a trend Ardoino says appears to be continuing into this year.
Tether is increasingly targeting the technology sector as part of its future growth strategy, according to Ardoino.
Market watchers see Korea as a country worth paying close attention to, as it is home to global tech giants like Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. The government has also committed to investing 100 trillion won ($70 billion) in artificial intelligence over the next five years, blending public and private sector resources.
“We believe that stablecoins will be the money of artificial intelligence,” he said. “We are carefully designing everything step by step.”
When asked about launching a Korean won-based stablecoin, Ardoino said he is taking time to identify the right local partners and formulate a market-specific strategy. In July, Tether appointed a Korean expansion manager to support these efforts.
Still, Ardoino emphasized that launching the stablecoin isn’t the main challenge — distribution is.
“Launching a stablecoin is very easy. Everyone can launch a stablecoin. The problem of stablecoins — the reason 99.9 percent of stablecoins fail — is the fact they don’t have any distribution,” Ardoino said. “The technology has been there for 10 years. You can replicate in one month. But building what we have built in terms of distribution is basically impossible.”
This distribution, Ardoino argued, is one of Tether’s key competitive advantages.
“We have hundreds of thousands of physical touchpoints in Central, South America, Africa and Asia, where we have direct interaction with people. We have thousands of partners around the world that are part of our network,” Ardoino said.
“Tether has an investment arm, and we invest a significant amount of money in continuing to expand our distribution network,” Ardoino added. “That is what’s making us very sticky in every area where we operate.”
As part of these efforts, Tether plans to launch a new locally designed stablecoin in the first quarter of 2026 from a developing country. Ardoino declined to reveal which nation, citing a nondisclosure agreement.
“We decoupled ourselves from the pure utility of crypto, and that makes us much stronger,” Ardoino said. “It grows because people — people with regular jobs, who don’t know anything about crypto — are using USDT as their normal life digital dollar.”
Ardoino believes stablecoins are now part of traditional financial infrastructure, enhancing what he calls the “transport layer for the U.S. dollar.”
As a result, Ardoino said projects like Tether must comply with emerging regulatory frameworks, including the U.S. GENIUS Act. The company is expected to launch USAT, a U.S.-regulated stablecoin, by the end of 2025.
“The GENIUS Act, in my opinion, is a good piece of law that empowers everyone to feel confident that the U.S., and eventually the rest of the world, will support these technologies,” Ardoino said. “The digital economy will accelerate and will become much more efficient because of stablecoins.”
