Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino recently claimed that his company will make $15 billion in profit this year. He added that it has a 99% profit margin, which would be astronomically successful.
Of course, we should interpret these comments in light of a rumored impending IPO. Ardoino also stated that its purported $500 billion valuation would be "very cheap," and described turning away investors.
Tether's Surging Profits
Tether, the world's largest stablecoin issuer, posted $13 billion in profits last year. However, it seems on track to surpass this staggering figure in 2025. Today, CEO Paolo Ardoino gave a talk in Lugano, Switzerland, where he made some bold claims:
"This year we’re going to approach another $15 billion profit. That’s very rare. We have a 99% profit margin, [there's] no other company in the world that has that," Ardoino claimed.
Specifically, Ardoino's talk largely centered around persistent rumors that the firm plans to go public soon. Since Tether has such a high profit margin, this has allowed the stablecoin issuer to show a high level of discretion with "an enormous amount of companies that want to invest" in it.
IPO Incentives Explained
Still, Tether has been making concrete plans to go public for roughly one month now. We should understand Ardoino's comments on company profits in this light. Even taking all his factual claims at face value, it's easy to see how this speech itself constituted a marketing effort.
For example, going by the publicly-reported details from deal negotiations last month, the firm is aiming for a $500 billion valuation. This would put it among the world's most valuable companies.
Nonetheless, Ardoino claimed that Tether's leaders "have to draw a line in the sand on a valuation that we think is very cheap," implying it should be much higher.
Whether Tether goes public in the next few months or not, it does have a few concrete plans to keep generating higher profits.
For example, its impending USAT stablecoin will allow it to return to US regulatory compliance. Tether's tokenized gold product has also recently enjoyed surging investment.
Moreover, Tether has been minting new USDT at an elevated rate, recently using it to inject fresh liquidity after a bearish tariff announcement. In other words, no matter what happens in the near future, the company is fully planning to become an industry leader and market mover.
If its profit keeps growing while maintaining these high profit margins, there's no reason to think that Tether's prominence will end any time soon.
