WEBVTT - Meet Tether: The Most Powerful Crypto Firm You’ve Never Heard Of

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<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

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<v Speaker 2>In late January, Todd Gillespie was at a hotel in

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<v Speaker 2>Al Salvador listening to a man in a T shirt

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<v Speaker 2>and track pants talk about the global financial system and

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<v Speaker 2>the end of the world as we know it.

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<v Speaker 3>New regulations plus you know, wars, plus economy instability, monetary debasement,

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<v Speaker 3>AI and all that. These are all variables.

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<v Speaker 1>If you look at all of them, you can predict

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<v Speaker 1>the trajectory of society.

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<v Speaker 4>Now, I was in this big ballroom and this hotel

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<v Speaker 4>in San Salvador, darkened lights and chandeliers, and this man

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<v Speaker 4>is standing on this stage in front of you know,

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<v Speaker 4>a thousand odd people really and presenting this PowerPoint slides

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<v Speaker 4>with you know, pictures of dark storm clouds.

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<v Speaker 1>Society cannot be stable if really for the population of work,

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<v Speaker 1>billions and billions of people don't have access to what

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<v Speaker 1>maybe many of us in this room are used to.

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<v Speaker 4>But you know, basically talking about the shackles of the

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<v Speaker 4>current financial system and the political decline and geopolitical dangers

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<v Speaker 4>that the world is seeing, and basically how his company

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<v Speaker 4>is going to thrive through that.

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<v Speaker 2>Todd is a reporter on the Finance team at Bloomberg.

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<v Speaker 2>He normally covers large investment banks, including Goldman Sachs. But

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<v Speaker 2>guy on stage that was Paolo Arduino, the CEO of Tether,

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<v Speaker 2>a cryptocurrency linked to the value of the US dollar.

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<v Speaker 2>Arduino told the crowd in that ballroom that he's building

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<v Speaker 2>Tether not just to survive armageddon, but to thrive in.

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<v Speaker 4>Armageddon when many other companies will fail, when countries might fail,

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<v Speaker 4>when we might see migration crises. Seed, yeah, exactly. He

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<v Speaker 4>sees Tether as this sort of life raft.

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<v Speaker 2>In just over a decade, Tether has grown from an

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<v Speaker 2>idea into a global crypto juggernaut. It has faced some

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<v Speaker 2>major hurdles along the way, but under President Trump's crypto

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<v Speaker 2>friendly administration and with investors looking for alternatives to traditional

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<v Speaker 2>financial systems, Tether could now be seeing some of its

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<v Speaker 2>fastest growth yet.

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<v Speaker 4>That is one of the most increasingly powerful companies in

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<v Speaker 4>the world that you've already never heard of.

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<v Speaker 2>I'm Stacey Bennox Smith in for Sarah Holder and David Gurra,

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<v Speaker 2>and this is the big take from Bloomberg News today

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<v Speaker 2>on the show. Tether one of the world's most powerful

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<v Speaker 2>and most secretive companies. We unpack how its business model

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<v Speaker 2>of issuing dollar linked stable coin is turning it into

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<v Speaker 2>a deal's machine, and whether scrutiny over its political connections

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<v Speaker 2>could complicate its meteoric rise. I am a little bit

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<v Speaker 2>embarrassed to say I had not heard of Tether, but

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<v Speaker 2>it is a huge company. Will you describe Tether a

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<v Speaker 2>little bit? What is it and what does it do?

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<v Speaker 4>Yeah? Of course, daisy. And you're not alone in thinking

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<v Speaker 4>you know and not really knowing what you feel better.

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<v Speaker 2>Essentially, Teather offers a kind of cryptocurrency, a stable coin.

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<v Speaker 4>Its main product is this thing called USDT, which is

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<v Speaker 4>a token that essentially mirrors the value of the US dollar.

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<v Speaker 2>It's pegged.

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<v Speaker 4>It's pegged. Yeah, exactly, it's tethered, right, That's the whole

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<v Speaker 4>point y.

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<v Speaker 2>That is smart, Todd says. The Tether origin story goes

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<v Speaker 2>something like.

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<v Speaker 4>This, About like fifteen nine years ago, some very smart

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<v Speaker 4>people had this idea of having this token that was

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<v Speaker 4>pegged to the US dollar, but operate it outside of

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<v Speaker 4>the traditional financial system. You know, this comes from the

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<v Speaker 4>same portion of the sort of crypto world that is

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<v Speaker 4>somewhat libertarian, it's somewhat anti the controlled that central banks

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<v Speaker 4>have over the.

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<v Speaker 2>Monetary system fiat currency.

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<v Speaker 4>Anti fiat currency, anti you know, inflation, essentially the ability

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<v Speaker 4>of the federal government and central banks to devalue a

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<v Speaker 4>currency and essentially devalue what a lot of normal people

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<v Speaker 4>and common people, you know, get affected by. And they're

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<v Speaker 4>basically saying, you should have some kind of fixed money

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<v Speaker 4>supply that is outside of the traditional financial system that

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<v Speaker 4>allows the free flow of money and takes some power

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<v Speaker 4>out of the hands of central banks.

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<v Speaker 2>By tethering the value of us DT to the US dollar,

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<v Speaker 2>the idea is that the value of their stable coin

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<v Speaker 2>will remain stable. One USDT is supposed to always equal

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<v Speaker 2>one dollar. Its value doesn't rise and fall like bitcoin

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<v Speaker 2>and other cryptocurrencies. And because it's on the blockchain, you

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<v Speaker 2>can send Tether to anyone else with a crypto wallet

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<v Speaker 2>instantly online without having to involve a bank. Todd says

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<v Speaker 2>both those qualities, the stability and the transferability, make it

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<v Speaker 2>really appealing for people in emerging markets.

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<v Speaker 4>When you buy a tether coin or you essentially go

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<v Speaker 4>to Tether's website and you buy a TETHERID, you give

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<v Speaker 4>it a USDT, you give it a dollar, you give

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<v Speaker 4>the company a dollar plus a small fee, you get

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<v Speaker 4>a tether in return, which enables you to send things

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<v Speaker 4>and enables you to remit payments. For instance, one of

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<v Speaker 4>the main use cases that tether has is for people,

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<v Speaker 4>for instance, who might live in the US who want

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<v Speaker 4>to send money home to their family and don't want

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<v Speaker 4>a Western Union or a traditional bank to take a

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<v Speaker 4>huge cut of that. Tether allows you to do that

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<v Speaker 4>with minimal fees essentially, so it basically is a much

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<v Speaker 4>more efficient way of doing that of processing payments, and

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<v Speaker 4>fundamentally that's what it says makes it so popular.

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<v Speaker 2>But those same reasons, the stable value, the ability to

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<v Speaker 2>store it and send it without involving banks, have also

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<v Speaker 2>made USDT a popular way for people to conduct illicit transactions,

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<v Speaker 2>and that is something tether says it has tried to

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<v Speaker 2>clamp down on.

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<v Speaker 4>Tether says that partly because it's on a blockchain, it

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<v Speaker 4>allows you to trace these transactions. So once you can

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<v Speaker 4>identif to fin whose wallets are so on the other side,

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<v Speaker 4>who these users are, who the sender is, who the

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<v Speaker 4>receiver is, allows you to freeze that actually better than

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<v Speaker 4>you at for instance, with cash, right like it's better

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<v Speaker 4>to at least have something on a blockchain where you

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<v Speaker 4>can isolate it, you can trace it, you can trace

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<v Speaker 4>it versus like having, you know, some drug cartel go

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<v Speaker 4>over borders with bags and bags of cash.

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<v Speaker 2>In a statement, Tether said it quote takes fraud, consumer harm,

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<v Speaker 2>and the misuse of USDT extremely seriously and maintains a

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<v Speaker 2>zero tolerance policy toward illicit activity end quote. The company

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<v Speaker 2>added it works with law enforcement agencies worldwide and has

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<v Speaker 2>frozen about four billion dollars worth of USDT tokens at

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<v Speaker 2>the behest of authorities. But a central question around Tether

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<v Speaker 2>is its reserves. For every dollar's worth of USDT, the

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<v Speaker 2>company needs to hold a dollar in some kind of stable,

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<v Speaker 2>relatively liquid asset to back it up. If not, the

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<v Speaker 2>whole currency could collapse. But it is really hard for

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<v Speaker 2>anyone outside the company to know exactly how much money

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<v Speaker 2>Tether holds or how that money's invested.

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<v Speaker 4>Heather has never had a proper audit, which has led

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<v Speaker 4>to a lot of skepticism over the strength of its reserves.

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<v Speaker 2>Tether has announced it's aiming to undergo a full audit

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<v Speaker 2>by the end of twenty twenty six, but for many

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<v Speaker 2>years that uncertainty gave US Regulator's pause. In February of

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<v Speaker 2>twenty twenty one, the New York Attorney General's Office found

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<v Speaker 2>the Tether misrepresented its reserve holdings and banned the company

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<v Speaker 2>from doing business in New York. Later that year, the

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<v Speaker 2>Commodity Futures Trading Commission found the between twenty sixteen and

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<v Speaker 2>twenty eighteen, Tether only had enough FIAT reserves to back

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<v Speaker 2>up its us DT tokens about a quarter of the

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<v Speaker 2>time and find the company forty one million dollars. But

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<v Speaker 2>when the second Trump administration began, the political wins shifted

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<v Speaker 2>for Tether.

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<v Speaker 4>In the Trump administration, you have a Colma secretary, Howard Lutnik,

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<v Speaker 4>who was formerly the CEO of Counterfitzgerald, which is Tether's

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<v Speaker 4>longtime banker. You have him in the cabinet.

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<v Speaker 2>His family owned some of the company from one.

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<v Speaker 4>Indeed, yeah, so essentially through the company, Howard Lutnik's children

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<v Speaker 4>own a conversible bond that represents about a possible five

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<v Speaker 4>percent stake in Tether, which at a valuation of five

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<v Speaker 4>hundred billion dollars potential valuation of that large, that's obviously

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<v Speaker 4>a lot of money.

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<v Speaker 2>That's a private island money.

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<v Speaker 4>It's private Island money.

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<v Speaker 2>Last October, Commerce Secretary Lutnik sold his multi billion dollar

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<v Speaker 2>ownership interest in Canter Fitzgerald, the financial services company he

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<v Speaker 2>led for more than three decades, to trust benefiting his

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<v Speaker 2>four children. At about the same time, one of those

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<v Speaker 2>trusts took the unusual step of borrowing an undisclosed sum

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<v Speaker 2>from Tether. A spokesman for Counter Fitzgerald and the Lutnik

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<v Speaker 2>children declined to discuss the size of the loan or

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<v Speaker 2>whether it was used to finance any part of the

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<v Speaker 2>asset sale. And in recip advance to questions about LATINX

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<v Speaker 2>divestiture and Tether's loan, a White House spokesperson said, quote,

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<v Speaker 2>the only special interest guiding the Trump Administration's decision making

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<v Speaker 2>is the best interest of the American people. During the

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<v Speaker 2>same period of time, US lawmakers also fast tracked legislation

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<v Speaker 2>to encourage the adoption of stable coins.

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<v Speaker 4>We've seen the Genius Act being passed through Congress, which

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<v Speaker 4>essentially creates a regulatory framework for stable coins. So not

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<v Speaker 4>just Tether, but also Circle, which is its biggest rival

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<v Speaker 4>but is a smaller company, are basically now given guardrails

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<v Speaker 4>to issue tokens that are compliant with US government regulations

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<v Speaker 4>which put them under greater obligations in terms of compliance

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<v Speaker 4>and also mandate them to back their currencies, back their

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<v Speaker 4>tokens with reserves of US treasuries, which the government wants

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<v Speaker 4>because essentially, the more biased you have for US treasuries,

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<v Speaker 4>it allows you to lower the cost of your debt. Right,

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<v Speaker 4>increase in demand helps you lower the price for the government. Right,

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<v Speaker 4>so increases the.

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<v Speaker 2>Cost is like how the government gets a lot of

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<v Speaker 2>its money. These are little loans exactly.

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<v Speaker 4>So on a purely commercial level, for Scott Besant or

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<v Speaker 4>the US Treasury, you know it's a great deal.

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<v Speaker 2>In late twenty twenty five, Teather CEO posted on x

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<v Speaker 2>that his company held about one hundred and thirty five

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<v Speaker 2>billion dollars worth of US treasuries, which he said made

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<v Speaker 2>it the seventeenth largest holder of US debt in the

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<v Speaker 2>world and the only entity in the top twenty that

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<v Speaker 2>was not a country. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessont has lauded

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<v Speaker 2>the stable coin industry. Purchasing all of that debt, a

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<v Speaker 2>movie says, will lower US borrowing costs and cement the

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<v Speaker 2>dollar status as the world's reserve currency.

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<v Speaker 4>They didn't really care all that much about you know,

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<v Speaker 4>what Teather might be doing with its profits that it

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<v Speaker 4>gets from interests on its results.

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<v Speaker 2>It's counting on that demand, I mean, one hundred billion

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<v Speaker 2>dollars worth of treasuries. If that demand goes away, that's

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<v Speaker 2>a big deal for our entire economy potentially.

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<v Speaker 4>Yeah, that's a concern that has been raised meetings, you know,

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<v Speaker 4>among finance chiefs of major economies. We've reported that. You know,

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<v Speaker 4>last year at the IMF, there were discussions about the

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<v Speaker 4>potential for stable coins to become a much larger part

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<v Speaker 4>of buying government debt around the world. And that's that

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<v Speaker 4>is a potentially, if not worrying thing, it's a thing

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<v Speaker 4>that people have to think carefully about, right because if

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<v Speaker 4>there's a run on a stable coin, if these companies

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<v Speaker 4>aren't set up properly, if there are compliance failures, or

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<v Speaker 4>you know, if you simply can't trust the folks who

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<v Speaker 4>are running them, that leaves your whole economy open to

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<v Speaker 4>potentially a lot of a lot of danger on a

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<v Speaker 4>financial level.

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<v Speaker 2>So what's the company doing with all that money, and

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<v Speaker 2>how is it positioning itself to move into the US market.

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<v Speaker 2>That's next. Tether has tradition only invested most of its

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<v Speaker 2>one hundred and ninety three billion dollars worth of assets

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<v Speaker 2>in US treasuries. That model has led to a lot

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<v Speaker 2>of profit. Last year, with only three hundred people on staff,

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<v Speaker 2>Tether reported a profit of ten billion dollars, and now

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<v Speaker 2>Bloomberg's Todd Gillespie says Tether is looking to grow even bigger.

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<v Speaker 4>It is now trying to raise money at a five

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<v Speaker 4>hundred billion plus dollar valuation, which would cement it really

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<v Speaker 4>for the first time as one of the most valuable

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<v Speaker 4>private companies in the world. When it started its fundraising

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<v Speaker 4>process that we broke the story of late last year

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<v Speaker 4>that was about on par with what SpaceX was raising

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<v Speaker 4>money at. So it gives you an idea of the

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<v Speaker 4>kind of ballparks that we're talking about SpaceX, Open AI Tether.

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<v Speaker 2>With so much capital, Tether is poised to become a

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<v Speaker 2>big player wherever it chooses to invest its reserves. And

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<v Speaker 2>it's not just us dead.

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<v Speaker 4>They have been buying land in South America. They've been

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<v Speaker 4>supporting commodity trading companies. They've been buying up gold huge,

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<v Speaker 4>huge quantities.

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<v Speaker 2>By the way, last year, Tether bought seventy tons of

0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:08.840
<v Speaker 2>gold that is more than the reported purchases of almost

0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:12.000
<v Speaker 2>any central bank. It's interesting that a crypto company is

0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:14.840
<v Speaker 2>investing so heavily in gold and US treasuries. I mean,

0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:19.240
<v Speaker 2>those are sort of the two traditional safe havens from volatility,

0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:24.720
<v Speaker 2>and crypto is not a place to go to avoid

0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:26.760
<v Speaker 2>volatility generally.

0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:29.280
<v Speaker 4>And it's interesting to think about how they're hedging that.

0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:31.240
<v Speaker 4>I mean, it seems like a huge hedge because they

0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:35.000
<v Speaker 4>are they are they are investing heavily and very very

0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:39.080
<v Speaker 4>safe assets, but they also see bitcoin as increasingly a

0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:42.120
<v Speaker 4>safe asset. Their argument is that, you know, as you

0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:45.480
<v Speaker 4>see other stores of value become less and less predictable,

0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:48.960
<v Speaker 4>the demand for bitcoin will go up, you know, as

0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:52.480
<v Speaker 4>a safe haven asset as well. So from their mind,

0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:55.439
<v Speaker 4>that's what they're doing. They are future proofing the company,

0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:58.280
<v Speaker 4>but also showing a way to have a future proofed economy.

0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:02.480
<v Speaker 2>Buying gold and US treasuries is one thing. Governments, companies,

0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:05.120
<v Speaker 2>and individuals all over the world can do that. But

0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:08.520
<v Speaker 2>Tether is also looking to expand its operations to America.

0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:11.080
<v Speaker 2>Before the passage of the Genius Act in July of

0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:13.680
<v Speaker 2>twenty twenty five, stable coins were in a sort of

0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:17.000
<v Speaker 2>legal limbo in the US, which limited their popularity and

0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:20.560
<v Speaker 2>growth in this country. But back in August, Tether announced

0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:22.320
<v Speaker 2>a new hire to help change that.

0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:25.040
<v Speaker 4>One of the key people involved in this is a

0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:26.920
<v Speaker 4>guy called bo Hines, who, by the way, is just

0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:30.280
<v Speaker 4>thirty years old, but he was one of the key

0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:33.760
<v Speaker 4>crypto advisors in the Trump administration and left recently and

0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:36.840
<v Speaker 4>is now CEO of Tether's US operations.

0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:40.160
<v Speaker 2>And in January, just a few months after Hinz joined Tether,

0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:44.520
<v Speaker 2>the company launched a new stable coin, the us AT.

0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:49.800
<v Speaker 4>So the main Tether token is USDT, but US eighty

0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:53.680
<v Speaker 4>is essentially a token that is complying with the Genius Act,

0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:56.120
<v Speaker 4>complying with US government regularly. This is it's a.

0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:59.720
<v Speaker 2>Special coin Teather's issuing just for the US market.

0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:04.280
<v Speaker 4>Right They're essentially interchangeable, but this one complies specifically with

0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:08.280
<v Speaker 4>the restrictions of the US government's new regulations.

0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:13.480
<v Speaker 2>Like USDT, the USAT token is pegged to the US dollar.

0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:18.000
<v Speaker 2>What makes us AT different is that US regulations restrict

0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:22.520
<v Speaker 2>where Tether can keep the reserves. USAT is exclusively backed

0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:27.240
<v Speaker 2>by assets like US treasuries. Tether also cannot place USAT

0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:31.760
<v Speaker 2>reserves into precious metals like gold or into Bitcoin, and

0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:35.680
<v Speaker 2>the company's pitch for US consumers is different too. Since

0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:38.800
<v Speaker 2>people in the US already have access to dollars, having

0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:42.240
<v Speaker 2>a dollar linked stable coin doesn't really have the same appeal.

0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:45.160
<v Speaker 2>It's not the same safe haven from inflation as it

0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:47.800
<v Speaker 2>is in other parts of the world. In the US,

0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:51.000
<v Speaker 2>todd says the company is looking to push Tether as

0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:53.680
<v Speaker 2>a better way to process payments.

0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:56.200
<v Speaker 4>What they're enabling people to do here, for instance, what

0:15:56.280 --> 0:16:00.160
<v Speaker 4>they think will be an appealing characteristic for company and

0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:02.840
<v Speaker 4>individuals here is that you can avoid things like credit

0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:05.360
<v Speaker 4>card fees. If you're a restaurant, I could pay for.

0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:08.320
<v Speaker 2>My dinner at a restaurant with yeah US.

0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:11.480
<v Speaker 4>At Yeah, you can avoid a three percent credit card fee,

0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:13.080
<v Speaker 4>for instance, they might give you a discount in the

0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:15.320
<v Speaker 4>same way that if you pay in cash, Oh, they

0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:18.920
<v Speaker 4>might do yeah. And also the transaction would be settled

0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:22.440
<v Speaker 4>immediately because it's done on the blockchain, which is essentially instantaneous.

0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:27.640
<v Speaker 2>To bolster that effort, Tether has invested in a wide

0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:31.960
<v Speaker 2>network of online companies that cater to US consumers. Tad

0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:35.280
<v Speaker 2>says the strategy, in part is to use those platforms

0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:38.960
<v Speaker 2>to help push Americans into using USAT.

0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:41.800
<v Speaker 4>So Tether has invested in Rumble, for instance, which is

0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:45.040
<v Speaker 4>a sort of right wing free speech video platform arrival

0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:48.360
<v Speaker 4>to YouTube, where they already have a big base of

0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:50.800
<v Speaker 4>you know, millions of users who use that all the time.

0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:52.920
<v Speaker 4>A lot of the events at the conference in San

0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:55.840
<v Speaker 4>salvad Or were streamed on to Rumble. So they're looking

0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:58.560
<v Speaker 4>to grow, and Paolo in our interview told me that

0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:02.080
<v Speaker 4>they are looking increasingly four digital platforms in the US

0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:05.680
<v Speaker 4>to invest into and that allows them to increase their

0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:09.720
<v Speaker 4>use case, increase their relevance essentially to the US economy.

0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:13.440
<v Speaker 2>Tether has also used its fortunes to make inroads into Washington.

0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:17.439
<v Speaker 2>An entity that identified itself as Tether America signed on

0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:20.840
<v Speaker 2>as a donor to Trump's White House Ballroom project. The

0:17:20.880 --> 0:17:23.640
<v Speaker 2>New York Times has reported that Tether is also expected

0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:26.199
<v Speaker 2>to back a new political spending group ahead of the

0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:29.280
<v Speaker 2>midrum elections this year, which it could do through its

0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:33.640
<v Speaker 2>new US arm. So, after having done a deep dive

0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:36.440
<v Speaker 2>into this company and followed this company and it's sort

0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:42.480
<v Speaker 2>of recent inroads into the US economy and political system,

0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:44.760
<v Speaker 2>what is your takeaway here? Is there a sort of

0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:48.480
<v Speaker 2>a systemic danger that Tether poses or how do you

0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:51.840
<v Speaker 2>feel after having reported out all of this.

0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:54.040
<v Speaker 4>I think I'll answer your question with two points. I

0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:56.320
<v Speaker 4>think the first one is that we've seen stable coin

0:17:56.400 --> 0:17:59.000
<v Speaker 4>adoption actually plateau a bit recently in the past year

0:17:59.080 --> 0:17:59.320
<v Speaker 4>or two.

0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:02.879
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, crypto has not had a good right couple of months.

0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:05.000
<v Speaker 4>Crypto as a whole Yeah, the crypto as an industry

0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:07.760
<v Speaker 4>certainly has hasn't had a whole great couple of months,

0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:12.760
<v Speaker 4>and that will obviously like hit faith in the sector

0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:15.440
<v Speaker 4>and hit faith in stable coins as a proxy as

0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:18.879
<v Speaker 4>well to some degree. There's no doubt about that. My

0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:20.840
<v Speaker 4>takeaway is, I, you know, I don't think that Heather's

0:18:20.880 --> 0:18:23.960
<v Speaker 4>going to become the most mainstream currency in the US

0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:26.439
<v Speaker 4>or payment token in the US anytime super soon, But

0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:29.240
<v Speaker 4>there is a growing use case that I think they

0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:32.520
<v Speaker 4>will work out somehow a way to expand in the

0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:36.399
<v Speaker 4>US and increase adoption some ways, whether that's through digital

0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:39.119
<v Speaker 4>platforms or elsewhere. But the other thing that really interests

0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:41.240
<v Speaker 4>me is really what they're going to do with their profits.

0:18:41.760 --> 0:18:43.880
<v Speaker 4>And they've invested, as we've said when Rumble, but they've

0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:46.400
<v Speaker 4>also invested in dozens of other companies. I mean, their

0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:49.679
<v Speaker 4>investment portfolio across the world is about one hundred and

0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:53.560
<v Speaker 4>thirty different companies that they've invested their profits in, and

0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:54.800
<v Speaker 4>what are they really going to do with all that

0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:56.520
<v Speaker 4>money is a huge question.

0:19:02.000 --> 0:19:04.560
<v Speaker 2>This is the Big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm Stacey

0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:07.480
<v Speaker 2>Mannix Smith in for Sarah Holder and David Gurra. To

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