Interview with Tether CEO: Sleeps 5 hours a night, aims for 100x growth for Tether

Compiled & Edited by: TechFlow, Deep Tide

Guest: Paolo Ardoino, Tether CEO & Bitfinex CTO

Host: Kevin Follonier

Podcast Source: When Shift Happens

Original Title: USDT Founder: Bitcoin, Gold, Stablecoin, & Tether, the Most Profitable Company in the World | EP 143

Broadcast Date: October 16, 2025

Key Takeaways

Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether and CTO of Bitfinex, shared how he built one of the most profitable companies in the world—where each employee generates about 100 millions USD in profit on average.

Tether launched USDT, the most widely used stablecoin globally, providing financial support to about 3 billion unbanked people worldwide, especially in countries facing extreme hyperinflation and financial crises.

Against the backdrop of increasing global economic instability, Paolo founded a company dedicated to bringing stability through "democratizing finance," achieving extraordinary success. Last year, Tether's revenue reached 13.7 billions USD.

Highlights

• I usually sleep at least 5 hours every night. But the problem is my sleep is fragmented because I always keep notifications on, waking up every hour to check them before going back to sleep.

• My hometown is a small village with only 600 people, so entertainment was limited. I started learning programming at 8 years old, and this passion continued through university and to this day.

• I personally have almost no hobbies. In fact, my only hobby is thinking every day about how to fulfill my mission and bring stability to the world.

• The existence of USDT is precisely to provide financial stability to people in emerging markets facing extreme economic instability.

• Tether is not just a stablecoin company, but a stability company. This is Tether's mission and the true meaning of a "stability company"—a company with social stability as its ultimate goal.

• What we need to do is make access to finance and technology more democratic, allowing more people to participate directly through peer-to-peer technology and decentralized finance.

• Tether is a "once-in-a-century company." Unlike other companies trying to build closed ecosystems, Tether's platform is open to the entire world. This is a completely different business model and the key to our success.

• Everyone should have their own mission, no matter how big or small, as long as it makes you happy.

• People usually use art to express emotions and ideas, but I realized my way of expression is through programming—I can create my own world and invite people into it through code.

• Stablecoins are actually the ultimate social network.

• We hope to show the world through this round of financing (20 billions) that Tether's mission goes far beyond this—our goal is to achieve 100x growth. Tether has the capital, philosophy, and technological innovation to do anything we want.

• If you create a product that solves real problems, it can truly change the world.

• Football is a global sport that reaches people of all classes, rich or poor. Therefore, investing in a football club is a simple way to reach global users—we hold a 10% stake in Serie A's Juventus club.

The Drive to Keep Going

Kevin Follonier: Many of my guests have one thing in common: they've experienced something in life that created a sense of imbalance in their hearts. So, is Tether's mission today related to something you lacked in your youth?

Paolo Ardoino:

I think I am very lucky. Although my family was not wealthy, I learned the most important lesson from them—hard work. I remember my grandparents, who have passed away, ran a small farm in Italy. They focused on producing high-quality olive oil and tomatoes, paying great attention to detail. Whether it was tomatoes, sage, rosemary, or asparagus, they always strived for the best, and this passion lasted their entire lives.

My grandfather would get up at five every morning, take a nap at one in the afternoon, and then continue working in the evening. This simple and fulfilling life kept him happy. Although he only had a primary school education, he was very good at math. My parents were also diligent role models. My mother was a kindergarten teacher, and my father was an ordinary employee who worked at Italy's national energy company and later retired in Israel. They are still alive today, and I feel very fortunate for that. After work, they would take us to exercise and then help out on the farm. You could say that from morning to night, our lives were about getting up, working hard, and getting things done. But all of it was filled with passion. I never heard them complain, because for them, this was their mission.

Everyone should have their own mission, no matter how big or small, as long as it makes you happy. So when someone says to me, "Oh, you work so hard," I say, no, the meaning I see in hard work goes far beyond that—I'm definitely not just working hard.

My schedule is also very unique. I usually sleep at least 5 hours every night. But the problem is my sleep is fragmented because I always keep notifications on, waking up every hour to check them before going back to sleep.

Kevin Follonier: You've been doing this for 11 years—sleeping 5 hours a night, waking up every hour? Do you nap during the day?

Paolo Ardoino:

No. If I nap during the day, I feel groggy. So I never take naps.

Started Programming at Age 8

Kevin Follonier: You started programming at 8 years old? How did that happen?

Paolo Ardoino:

My father worked at Italy's national energy company. In the early 1990s, Italian public enterprises began introducing computers to improve efficiency and modernize. As is well known, Italy's bureaucracy is very complex, and many tasks are time-consuming, so introducing computers was significant for improving efficiency. My father was passionate about these new technologies. I remember when I was 7, he brought home a computer and told me it was very expensive, costing about two months of his salary. Although I didn't understand what two months' salary meant at the time, he told me it was very expensive and to be careful not to break it.

As the only child in the family, I was naturally curious about the computer. We had floppy disks to play games, but due to financial reasons, we couldn't afford many games. Also, in 1991 Italy, games were hard to find. My hometown was a small village with only 600 people, so entertainment was limited. Over time, I got bored with the existing games and wanted to make my own. I asked my father to buy me a book on how to program games. He said, "Okay, Paolo, I can buy it, but the book costs 60,000 lira."

At that time, Italy still used the lira as currency. He asked, "Are you sure you want to buy this book? It's expensive." I said, "I want to learn." Then he brought the book home, and I started learning programming—a passion that continued through university and to this day.

The Infinite Possibilities of Programming

Kevin Follonier: You mentioned that programming is a unique form of expression, different from other art forms, that can unleash human imagination and let us create entirely new worlds full of infinite possibilities. Can you elaborate?

Paolo Ardoino:

Of course. To be honest, I am not good at traditional art forms. Although I used to be a decent guitar player, I haven't played in years. In other artistic fields, I can say I have no talent at all. For example, in school art classes, whether it was technical design or other hands-on projects, my work always looked messy. I remember when I drew, my arm would swing too much, the pencil would move randomly on the canvas, and the result was always unsatisfactory. I couldn't color, and I couldn't sing—I couldn't even do the most basic artistic expressions.

But people usually use art to express emotions and ideas, and I realized my way of expression is through programming. I can create my own world and invite people into it through code.

What Is a Stablecoin & Why Are Stablecoins So Important?

Kevin Follonier: You used programming to create a stablecoin. What is a stablecoin? How would you explain it to a mother?

Paolo Ardoino:

Simply put, a stablecoin is a digital currency, just like the digital balance you see in your bank account. But the difference is, stablecoins use blockchain technology for transfers instead of relying on the banking system. You can think of it as a "digital dollar" that can circulate freely around the world like cash.

Blockchain is a decentralized technology, like a borderless giant database, with servers distributed all over the world instead of being concentrated in a single bank or institution. We use the best form of database—a decentralized database—to move dollars.

Kevin Follonier: Why are stablecoins so important in our world?

Paolo Ardoino:

The significance of stablecoins is that they provide solutions for billions of people worldwide who lack financial services. These people often live in countries with high inflation—for example, inflation in Europe is between 30% and 34%, Turkey is at 50%, Nigeria is even higher, and Argentina sometimes exceeds 200%. In these countries, hyperinflation causes local currencies to depreciate rapidly, severely affecting people's purchasing power. Now in 2025, everyone is interested in stablecoins.

In developed countries like the US and Europe, the financial system is already very efficient—you may have bank accounts, credit cards, and payment tools like Cash App or PayPal, with almost no barriers to daily transfers. But in some developing countries, the efficiency of the financial system may be only 5%, and many people can't even open a bank account. Stablecoins, through blockchain technology, can raise financial efficiency in these regions to 60% or 70%. For people living in remote African villages, this change is huge—it not only allows them to participate in the global economy but also brings more opportunities.

The internet began to enable this kind of connection. In fact, the internet is a way to invite people into a global context, but without financial services, the internet is meaningless. I believe that stablecoins are actually the ultimate social network, because the currency of social networks, in my view, is the ultimate social network—it involves interpersonal interaction, peer-to-peer interaction, and it inherently contains value and the information you want to transfer.

Tether's Mission & Becoming a Stability Company

Kevin Follonier: So what is your mission?

Paolo Ardoino:

My mission is to bring stability to the world. In a world that is gradually becoming more restless and chaotic, I think stability is especially important. This may sound strange, but Tether's success is actually closely related to the worsening of many global problems. If the financial system were fair, resources accessible, and everything worked properly, there would be no need for USDT to exist. The existence of USDT is precisely to provide financial stability to people inemerging markets facing extreme economic instability.

As a developer, I think we are building Tether into a leader in technology—not just in finance, but also in telecommunications, social media, and energy. Our goal is to use decentralized technology to make these industries more open and accessible, just as we did with the dollar and finance, and this is Tether's core mission. It's worth mentioning that most of our profits are not distributed to shareholders—about 95% stays within the company, invested in new things and ideas to support our mission.

I personally have almost no hobbies. In fact, my only hobby is thinking every day about how to achieve this mission. I'm obsessed with this issue—I'm the kind of person who gets deeply involved in a field, and it basically takes over my whole life.

Kevin Follonier: You mentioned in Docker Times that as the global situation becomes increasingly unstable, Tether will continue to invest part of its profits in safe assets such as bitcoin, gold, and land. So, what is a stability company?

Paolo Ardoino:

I often think about what a "stability company" really is. Once, a reporter asked me to define Tether in a few words, and he tried to say Tether is a stablecoin company. My answer was, Tether is not just a stablecoin company, but a stability company.

In my view, access to technology and finance is the key to social stability. If people can easily access technology and financial services, they have less motivation to create chaos and instability. Often, the root of social unrest is people's dissatisfaction, which usually stems from extremely difficult living conditions.

Of course, there are other reasons for social instability, but overall, I think global stability is closely related to the huge gaps between countries and regions. In the past 20 to 30 years, although technology has tried to narrow these gaps, it has actually further exacerbated inequality. The same is true in finance—about half the world's population cannot reliably access financial services, or even open a bank account. This is not because they are untrustworthy, but because their poverty makes banks uninterested. This phenomenon is especially evident in some African or Central American countries, leading to serious instability in these regions because the distribution of technology and financial resources is completely skewed toward a small wealthy minority.

What we need to do is make access to finance and technology more democratic, allowing more people to participate directly through peer-to-peer technology anddecentralized finance. I believe that when people's lives, families, communities, and countries become more stable, they will have less motivation to create chaos. This is Tether's mission and the true meaning of a "stability company"—a company with social stability as its ultimate goal. We have already proven that such a company can be built. And, gratifyingly, the more we move in this direction, the more profitable the company becomes.

This is also why I define Tether as a "once-in-a-century company." This is not boasting, but because Tether's uniqueness lies in the fact that the more it promotes open source, openness, and decentralization, the more it attracts a broader user base. These users use the tools provided by Tether to achieve financial freedom and freedom of speech, and the wider this process, the more value the company's data can create. Unlike other companies trying to build closed ecosystems, Tether's platform is open to the entire world. This is a completely differentbusiness model and the key to our success.

Tether: The Company with the Highest Profit per Employee Globally

Kevin Follonier: You mentioned that Tether is one of the best companies in the world, with a profit margin as high as 99%. How did you build a company where each employee generates about 100 millions USD in profit per year? Have you thought deeply about this?

Paolo Ardoino:

Frankly, I haven't thought much about such data. We always focus on optimizing efficiency. Whenever we do something, I ask myself: Why do it this way? Is there a better way? How can we further improve efficiency? Two years ago, Tether's team was only 40 people, but as the business expanded, we now have 250 to 300 employees, including many developers, as we are expanding into new fields like artificial intelligence. However, the core stablecoin management team still has about 100 people.

Of course, the current high interest rate environment greatly helps our profitability. Before 2022, global interest rates were low, and this change was unpredictable. In addition, the impact of the pandemic was also unexpected—these factors together drove our profit growth. However, we believe that by continuously expanding into new business areas, we can maintain high profitability in the long term. Optimizing efficiency and seizing opportunities are the keys to our success.

Why Raise 20 Billion USD?

Kevin Follonier: You recently announced that you are considering raising 20 billion USD, giving the company a valuation of 500 billions USD. If these funds were in place tomorrow, how would you use them?

Paolo Ardoino:

Last year, we achieved 13.7 billions USD in profit, and this year's performance is expected to be similar. But I want to emphasize that our purpose in raising funds is not just to make money, but to send an important message. As the Joker said in Batman: "It's not about money, it's about sending a message." We hope to show the world through this fundraising that Tether's mission goes far beyond this—our goal is to achieve 100x growth.

Once, in public, I mentioned that I am a big fan of Peter Thiel and am reading his book "Zero to One." However, now is no longer the era when startups can make huge profits through simple data growth. I prefer to say that our goal is to go from the current foundation to the "zero to one hundred" stage. I once described it as "0.25" because we are just getting started.

The reason I say this is because it's not about how much money we've made, but about the potential we think needs to be seized, to express our view of this opportunity.

I define Tether as a once-in-a-century opportunity because I believe every company needs three things: philosophy, direction, and capital. First, you need a philosophy or belief, a clear idea of what kind of company you want to be; second, you need the ability to innovate, whether in technology or other fields; third, you need capital. Most companies only have one or two of these three. You can be a large-scale innovator with the right philosophy, but if you don't have funding, you need to raise money and go to venture capital firms. However, the incentive mechanism of venture capital is to make more money than they invest in you, which may deviate from your original project, philosophy, and ideas.

I think in this case, Tether has capital, philosophy, and technological innovation, and can do anything it wants. Therefore, the message we are sending is that we have much more to show, we want to grow significantly, and our vision is amazing. We hope to have partners join our company to help us realize this unique and powerful vision—we don't want to mess it up.

Why Did Tether Invest in @Plasma?

Kevin Follonier: Tether recently invested in a company called Plasma, whose founder Paul previously participated in our podcast and helped us build this platform. So why is Plasma so important that Tether decided to invest in them?

Paolo Ardoino:

I think Tether's USDT is not just adigital currency, but also an important part ofblockchain technology. Stablecoins are essentially digital dollars based on blockchain technology. However, over the past few years, the development direction of blockchain technology has deviated. Many developers focus more on quickly launching hype-driven blockchain projects, such as meme coins like Dogecoin. While this approach may work in the short term, it doesn't really drive the industry's long-term development. Still, such projects have made some teams money.

The success of USDT proves one thing: If you create a product that solves real problems, it can truly change the world.

Therefore, I believe that blockchains based on stablecoins or focused on a specific use case can make stablecoin transfers very cheap and easy to use. For example, if you have stablecoins on Ethereum now, you still need to buy ETH as gas to transfer USDT—this user experience needs improvement. I think even though the blockchain industry has developed for many years, the quality of user experience is still low because we focus on the wrong things, only caring about our own "ecosystem," whose members are basically geeks and people with time to learn new things. However, for most ordinary people, this approach doesn't work. That's why USDT is so popular globally—because USDT is not catering to speculators.

An interesting statistic shows that 67% of USDT transactions are simply for transferring funds, while only 10% to 20% of other stablecoin transactions involve transferring other assets. This shows that most USDT users just want to access the stable value of 1 USD. In contrast, 80% of other stablecoin users are also transferring other assets, meaning they are more inclined to trade assets in DeFi. Therefore, I prefer USDT to serve tens of millions of ordinary users living in Africa, rather than just meeting the needs of 10,000 New York bankers.

Why Does Tether Own 10% of Juventus Football Club?

Kevin Follonier: Tether recently invested in Juventus Football Club and holds about a 10% stake. This raises the question: why would a company focused on stablecoins choose to invest in a football club?

Paolo Ardoino:

First, both Giancarlo and I are loyal Juventus fans. Giancarlo is from the Piedmont region of Italy, where Juventus is the representative team. I myself grew up near Genoa, about 80 to 100 kilometers from Turin. Many people from my hometown vacation in Piedmont, so Juventus has a huge influence. My father is a Juventus fan, and I inherited his preference—Giancarlo as well.

Another reason is that we believe Italy's football industry needs modernization. In Italy, football clubs are often used by entrepreneurs as power tools—they usually own both media and clubs and use these resources for political activities. In contrast, we see countries like Saudi Arabia investing in football, and clubs like Chelsea, Manchester United, and Paris Saint-Germain, which already have hundreds of millions of fans worldwide. Football is a global sport that reaches people of all classes, rich or poor. Therefore, investing in a football club is a simple way to reach global users.

We hope Italian football clubs can build closer ties with fans, spread positive values, and achieve profitability through modern management. The success of a club should be based on team strength, match results, and interaction with fans. However, in many Italian clubs, this model has not really been realized. Through our investment in Juventus, we hope to promote change in Italy's football industry and make Juventus more international and forward-looking.

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