According to Bloomberg, Tether, the issuer of the U.S. dollar stablecoin USDT, plans to double its staff over the next year to strengthen capabilities in areas such as compliance.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino told Bloomberg News that the company’s headcount is expected to reach around 200 by mid-2025, and that Tether will also increase staff in its finance department, which manages the $118 billion in assets backing USDT. Adroino said:
"We're very proud of the fact that we're very lean, and we want to stay lean because we want to be flexible. We're very careful when we hire, we only hire senior people."
Despite its small headcount, Tether has emerged as a financial behemoth, generating $1.3 billion in profits from its popular stablecoin in the second quarter alone. Several of the largest cryptocurrency exchange operators, such as Binance and Coinbase, employ thousands of people.
Related reports: "Tether made a net profit of US$5.2 billion in the first half of the year, and the scale of U.S. debt reserves exceeds that of many countries"
Ardoino said that monitoring potentially illegal activity in secondary markets involving USDT — such as trading on exchanges and over-the-counter trading desks — requires “different types of tools that are more automated.” The primary market refers to investors purchasing or redeeming USDT directly with Tether.
Tether has come under scrutiny many times due to the illegal use of USDT. A Wall Street Journal report published in April detailed how Russian arms smugglers used the stablecoin to circumvent U.S. sanctions. Tether said the company is working with authorities around the world to ensure USDT is not used for illegal purposes.
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