At Paris Blockchain Week 2023, Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino spoke with Cointelegraph reporter Joseph Hall to discuss topics like USD Coin (USDC) breaking out of its dollar peg and how he highlights the importance of Bitcoin (BTC) and decentralization.
According to Ardoino, stablecoin issuers should always ensure that their reserves remain protected. The Tether executive believes that the job of a stablecoin issuer is to protect reserves and funds to the best of its ability. Ardoino explained:
“I think our competitor’s mistake was leaving $3 billion or more uninsured in the bank. (…) And I was surprised to see this lack of understanding of risk management from the big competitors in the space.”
In addition, the Tether executive explained that he thought that overexposure in a single jurisdiction, which in this case would be the United States, could cause big problems. In the end, this is what happened, Ardoino said. He added:
“For us, trusting a diverse set of jurisdictions is extremely important. In decentralization, in distribution, there is more security”.
Asked what he thought about the possibility of the USDC going to zero, Ardoino noted that his company did not expect this to happen. He said that if Tether (USDT) remained the only stablecoin on the market, the industry would not be an industry. “If you’re alone in the industry, it’s not really an industry,” he said.
Related: Troubled Cryptocurrency Industry Could Emerge Stronger After USDC Decoupling
In addition to the USDC incident, the duo also discussed other topics, such as the dollar being a store of value and the adoption of Bitcoin payments in Lugano, Switzerland. When asked if the US dollar can still be considered a store of value, Ardoino said that this could be the case in some countries. However, the CTO of Tether expressed that in terms of wealth storage, Bitcoin is still the best. He said:
“I think Bitcoin is really the ultimate way to keep your own wealth and it’s the safest way. And I think, if anything, what’s happening these months is just, you know, proving that bitcoiners and Bitcoin maxis were right all along.”
Lastly, the Tether executive also spoke about his firm’s collaboration with American clothing brand Guess to bring Bitcoin and Tether payments to retail stores in Lugano. Plan B, which is a joint project between Tether and the city of Lugano, collaborated with Guess to accept Bitcoin and Tether at local stores.
