150-Person Team Generates $14 Billion Annually: How Does Tether Forge the "Cryptocurrency Printing Press"?

Original Article Title: The Most Profitable Business Per Employee in the World

Original Article Author: Bridget Harris

Original Article Translation: DeepTech TechFlow

In 2024, Tether generated $14 billion in profit with only 150 employees, equivalent to $93 million contributed per employee. This astonishing efficiency has led many to believe that Tether may be the most operationally efficient company in the world. So, how did this stablecoin company achieve such a feat?

Last year, Tether achieved $14 billion in profit, surpassing Pfizer, Tesla, and BlackRock. And all of this was accomplished without relying on advertising or a large number of employees but merely a product that many may not have paid much attention to — the USDT stablecoin.

Today, the circulation of USDT has reached $147 billion, far outpacing other stablecoins, making it the most widely used stablecoin globally. Furthermore, Tether has embarked on ambitious explorations in artificial intelligence, private communications, and neural technology. Whenever someone purchases USDT, Tether uses the received cash to generate returns, with these funds primarily invested in U.S. Treasury bonds.

In 2024, Tether became the seventh-largest buyer of U.S. Treasury bonds, even surpassing countries like Canada and Norway. Moreover, its growth trajectory is accelerating: last year, the total issuance of USDT reached $45 billion, a 57% year-over-year increase, and in the first quarter of 2025, USDT's user base grew by 13%.

Although Tether was previously known for its low profile, with the U.S. regulatory environment shifting in its favor, the company is now beginning to share more of its future vision. Stablecoins are fundamentally digital dollars issued on a blockchain and pegged to the dollar at a 1:1 ratio. They provide a means for the global population to efficiently access dollars, serving as a savings vehicle and significantly enhancing the efficiency of fund flows, especially in cross-border payments.

The second-ranked stablecoin is Circle's USDC, with a circulation of $62 billion, less than half of USDT. USDC focuses more on compliant payments and institutional adoption. Unlike USDT, which dominates the limited international market for dollar acquisition, USDC — originally launched by Coinbase and Circle — is more popular in the U.S. market.

The CEO of Tether, Paolo Ardoino, is a 40-year-old Italian computer scientist who considers himself a "simple person" and is unconcerned about competitors. In an interview with Forbes earlier this month, he stated: "They do not represent the true use case of a stablecoin." In his view, the core value of a stablecoin is to provide a reliable and practically usable currency for people in economically unstable countries, such as individuals in Argentina, Turkey, and Nigeria. In these regions, rapid devaluation of the local currency has made saving nearly impossible, leading to an urgent need for access to the US dollar.

Although the primary use case of USDT is still focused on emerging markets, Paolo is also exploring the launch of a stablecoin specifically targeting US institutions. "How 'interesting' would that be for our competitors?" he quipped in the Forbes interview.

A particular aspect of Tether's business is its partnership with the legendary US financial institution Cantor Fitzgerald. A few years ago, when other US companies were reluctant to engage with Tether, Cantor became its banking partner. At that time, Tether faced controversy due to the inclusion of Chinese corporate bonds in part of the reserves behind USDT.

Despite various controversies, Cantor took the risk to collaborate with Tether. Recently, Cantor acquired a 5% stake in Tether for $6 billion, a valuation that clearly includes a significant discount. This move may partly be a token of appreciation for Cantor's early support. It is worth noting that Howard Lutnick, Cantor's former Chairman and CEO, currently serves as the Commerce Secretary in the Trump administration.

Addressing criticism of Tether at a recent Bitcoin conference, Lutnick responded: "They say Tether is Chinese-owned. In reality, it is owned by Giancarlo, who is Italian, and there is a difference between the two."

(Note: Giancarlo is the CFO of Tether and owns approximately 47% of Tether's shares. Source: Forbes)

What is the close relationship between Tether and Cantor, and what is the reason behind this discounted transaction? The secret lies in Cantor's special status: it is one of only 24 primary dealers in the US that can trade directly with the Federal Reserve.

Practically speaking, this means that if a large number of users try to convert USDT to USD, Tether can immediately meet the demand. As a primary dealer, Cantor helps the Federal Reserve maintain liquidity in the government bond market, giving Cantor a direct channel to trade with the Fed. When Tether needs cash, Cantor can directly sell US Treasury bonds to the Fed without delay or intermediaries.

In other words, Tether has gained the ability to instantly obtain dollars through the world's most secure and liquid asset. This "firepower" is unmatched by any other stablecoin issuer. Tether's strong position is not coincidental. In 2022, Tether was attacked by Sam Bankman-Fried and his company FTX. They tried to trigger a bank run-like crisis by accumulating billions of USDT in just two days and selling them off. Ultimately, Tether successfully handled a redemption demand of up to $7 billion—equivalent to 10% of its circulating supply at the time.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino highlighted in a recent episode of "Odd Lots" that a 10% run on Tether within 48 hours would be enough to bankrupt most financial institutions, yet Tether emerged "unscathed." In a sense, Tether also exhibits some resistance to fluctuations in US Treasury bond rates: typically, when rates fall, economic activity increases, driving growth in Tether's deposits and USDT circulation (even though yields may decrease, more funds still bring substantial returns). And when rates rise, Tether can directly increase profits through a higher reserve yield.

While these effects may not fully offset each other, this structural dynamic is an advantage for Tether.

Tether's critics often accuse the company of never undergoing a formal audit and speculate that USDT may be used for criminal activities and money laundering. In response, Paolo usually cites cases that demonstrate how illicit funds often flow unnoticed through banks, credit card networks, and payment processors until entering the Tether system, where they are flagged and frozen. To date, Tether has assisted in over 400 law enforcement actions in the US and collaborated with 230 agencies from 50 countries.

Paolo further believes that in regions like South America and Africa, Tether is actually the final line of defense in the dollarization process. In these areas, where "you almost don't see America," as he mentioned on "Odd Lots," except for McDonald's, "hospitals, schools, libraries, and airports are all built by China," Paolo said. He also noted that China is pushing for a gold-backed digital currency to pay all workers on these infrastructure projects. If this effort succeeds, it could threaten the dollar's reserve currency status and ultimately weaken America's global political influence.

In a village in Africa, Tether is building a small station with solar panels, where people can rent batteries for $3 USDT per month. In these areas, electricity resources are extremely scarce, with 600 million people lacking access to reliable power. Considering that the average monthly wage in these villages is around $80, this $3 USDT subscription service is very cost-effective for local residents. Similar initiatives have also emerged in South America, where local small shops have started accepting USDT payments. These channels not only serve as a grassroots distribution mechanism for USDT (beneficial for Tether's business growth) but also indirectly contribute to the global influence of the US Dollar (good news for the U.S. government).

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

Historically, the main issue with P2P applications has been poor user experience, and Tether is working to address this problem. "We are looking for solutions to the user experience (UX) issues, ultimately hoping to achieve a user experience similar to WhatsApp—but completely P2P," Tether's CEO Paolo Ardoino said via a Zoom meeting. The Holepunch protocol supporting Keet is, in fact, a widely applicable P2P standard that can be used to build various decentralized systems.

"What if we could suddenly build a range of applications—from social media, messaging to enterprise applications—reducing infrastructure costs by 97%, enhancing privacy, and ensuring data belongs to its rightful owner?"

In addition, Tether has developed a platform called Hadron for asset tokenization; launched a self-custody open-source wallet; and invested in a brain-computer interface company. In terms of the number of employees, the Tether team is relatively small, with only 150 people, but their loyalty is very high. "When we went through the toughest times, not a single person left my team," Paolo mentioned at a Cantor Crypto conference.

He partially attributes this to Tether's past focus on hiring talent from emerging markets. "They know what's most important... They are willing to work for us because they see that we are actually trying to solve the real problems they face, not those problems that the wealthy world thinks they have," Paolo explained.

Paul believes that Tether is a once-in-a-century company because it is able to "separate building cutting-edge technology from profit needs." In other words, the company can focus on innovation (not limited to USDT) without worrying about short-term profitability pressures. With the substantial income brought by USDT, Tether has the ability to develop "the most insane technology" without rushing to profit from it.

"We use the technology we develop as a distribution layer to support our golden goose—USDT. I don't think any other company can do this." Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said in an interview.

"The more our technology empowers users, the more successful our core product becomes. This is completely different from traditional tech companies—they often need to lock users into cages in order to sell more products."

One of the most gratifying parts of Tether's story is that its leadership has never forgotten the original intention of cryptocurrency. "Institutions will betray you for one basis point (0.01%) of profit," Paolo mentioned on the Odd Lots podcast. This attitude was once a consensus in the entire crypto community during the industry's early days, but is now gradually being forgotten. Transferring power from exploitative institutions back to individuals is the very essence of why cryptocurrency was born.

Interestingly, today one of the wealthiest and most influential figures in the crypto space still adheres to these original principles, while those who have forsaken their founding ideals for the pursuit of money often end up failing, and even end up behind bars. Equally rare is the fact that a company making so much money can actually help users in such a tangible way: those who were previously unable to access stable currency in emerging markets. And all of this stems from Paolo's sincere belief: "I hope Tether is seen as... a positive contribution to the world."

Discussing his vision for Tether, Paolo said, "The past 20 years have been very good for the Western world, but I don't think the next 10 to 15 years will be as stable for the Western world. We are a stablecoin company... but perhaps we are more a 'stability company.' Our technology is aimed at bringing stability to society, starting with currency."

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