Tether goes crazy: Under the trend of compliance, is the "king of stablecoins" anxious about its wild growth?
AI, brain-computer, agriculture, sports... Tether's reach is no longer limited to the cryptocurrency field.Author: Azuma, Planet Daily
The absolute leader in the stablecoin sector, Tether, has been very active recently, not only making moves in verticals such as mining, exchanges, and Layer 1/Layer 2 in the cryptocurrency space, but also actively expanding into industries like AI, brain-computer interfaces, agriculture, and sports.
Although Tether's business has not been limited to the stablecoin sector in the past few years, its recent pace of expansion has clearly accelerated. The reason for this is that with the gradual advancement of the GENIUS Act, stablecoins are slowly integrating into the mainstream financial market in a compliant manner. However, due to Tether and USDT's difficulty in meeting the various requirements of the GENIUS Act regarding issuer registration, reserve asset types, auditing standards, and more, its market position is bound to be impacted during the subsequent compliance process. In this context, Tether seems to be somewhat anxious, and its recent multi-directional acceleration in expansion may be an attempt to break through.
Challenges Faced by Tether Under Compliance Trends
Earlier this month, the highly anticipated stablecoin regulatory bill (the GENIUS Act) was officially passed by the final vote of the senators and submitted to the House of Representatives for review.
The GENIUS Act was first proposed in February this year by U.S. Senators Bill Hagerty, Tim Scott, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Cynthia Lummis, aiming to establish a legal framework for the legal use of stablecoin payments within the United States.
The core provisions of the bill are as follows:
Definition of payment stablecoins: Digital assets anchored to a fixed currency value must be fully backed 1:1 by U.S. dollars or other highly liquid assets, specifically for payment settlement scenarios.
Dual licensing regulation: Federal regulation for issuers with a market capitalization exceeding $10 billion; state-level regulation allows smaller issuers to choose state registration (must meet federal equivalency standards).
100% reserve requirements: Reserve assets are limited to cash, short-term U.S. Treasury bonds, or central bank deposits, and must be isolated from operating funds. Monthly proof of sufficient reserves must be submitted to ensure users can redeem at face value.
Mandatory transparency disclosures: Regular public disclosure of reserve composition and redemption policies, with compliance audits conducted by registered accounting firms.
Anti-money laundering compliance: Issuers will be subject to the Bank Secrecy Act, fulfilling AML obligations at the level of financial institutions.
Priority protection for users: In the event of issuer bankruptcy, stablecoin holders' claims will take precedence over other claimants.
Clear regulatory authority: Clearly states that payment stablecoins do not fall under the categories of securities, commodities, or investment companies, delineating regulatory boundaries.
In short, as the first federal-level stablecoin bill, the market generally believes that the GENIUS Act will help stablecoins move out of the phase of wild growth and formally integrate into the compliant market. However, at the same time, the GENIUS Act also imposes strict compliance requirements on existing stablecoin issuers, among which USDT, registered overseas, with relatively complex reserve assets (some being Bitcoin and gold), and a long-standing refusal to disclose complete audits, is likely to face the most severe impact.
Previously, in an interview with Forbes exclusive, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated that the company plans to issue a new compliant stablecoin in the U.S. market, which will be "tailored to the highly banked and digitalized U.S. economy," but this may just be Tether's compromise in response to the U.S. stablecoin compliance trend. After all, USDT is Tether's core product, and USDT is expected to face greater competitive pressure in the near future, which is clearly not good news for Tether. The WSJ previously reported that the compliance requirements of the GENIUS Act could lead to Tether becoming the "biggest loser."
Similar situations are not only occurring in the U.S. In February of this year, the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) published a list of compliant stablecoin issuers, including Tether's biggest competitor Circle (USDC issuer), with a total of 10 institutions obtaining licenses, but Tether did not appear on the list.
Under Pressure, Tether Accelerates Expansion
With the storm approaching, Tether naturally will not "sit idly by." Not long ago, Paolo Ardoino emphasized that Tether will continue to focus its business on markets outside the U.S., providing services to the 3 billion users who have not yet fully accessed the traditional financial system, thereby avoiding direct competition between USDT and other stablecoins leaning towards mainstream finance.
At the same time, Tether is also accelerating its expansion both within and outside the cryptocurrency industry in search of new growth points.
According to statistics from Odaily Planet Daily, in just 2025, Tether has frequently made moves in verticals such as mining, wallets, Layer 1/Layer 2, and exchanges through direct entry or indirect investments.
In mining:
In March, Tether announced an increase in its stake in Bitdeer, holding a 21.4% share;
In June, Tether announced plans to open-source its Bitcoin mining operating system MOS in the fourth quarter of this year to lower the entry barrier for new miners;
Also in June, Tether announced that it holds over 100,000 BTC in total, aiming to become the world's largest Bitcoin mining company by the end of the year.
In wallets:
In January, Tether invested in the video-sharing platform Rumble, which announced it would launch Rumble Wallet, intending to use AI agents/assistants to help manage payments;
In February, Tether announced a strategic investment in the self-custody crypto wallet Zengo to promote support for Tether's stablecoin in its covered major blockchain ecosystems;
Also in February, Paolo Ardoino publicly criticized MetaMask's lag, possibly intending to promote its own supported wallet products.
In Layer 1/Layer 2:
In early June, the Layer 1 project Stable, supported by Tether's investment, officially launched, with USDT as its native gas token, and Paolo Ardoino will serve as an advisor for the project;
In mid-June, another hot Bitcoin Layer 2 project, Plasma, supported by Tether's investment, successfully completed its public deposit phase, with the $1 billion deposit limit quickly snapped up.
In exchanges:
In June, Tether announced a strategic investment in the digital asset exchange Orionx, with specific investment amounts not yet disclosed.
Even more surprisingly, in addition to frequently making moves within the cryptocurrency industry, Tether's expansion has already extended beyond the industry, covering many fields such as AI, brain-computer interfaces, agriculture, and sports.
In February, Tether announced that its Tether Data is leading the development of the open-source platform BrainOS, aimed at democratizing the use of advanced brain enhancement tools.
In March, Tether announced it would spend about 10 million euros to acquire a 30% stake in the Italian media company Be Water, which owns podcast production companies Chora Media, Will Media, and film production and distribution company Be Water Film.
In March, Paolo Ardoino posted on X, emphasizing that Tether plans to recruit talent in large numbers to support the development of its AI, telecommunications, and data projects.
In April, Paolo Ardoino revealed in a recent interview that Tether plans to launch its own AI platform in June (or September), which will serve as a peer-to-peer alternative to models like OpenAI, allowing users to control their own data and perform all reasoning, executing all complex AI logic on their own devices.
In April, Tether announced the completion of a tender offer to acquire up to 49,596,500 shares of the South American agricultural giant Adecoagro S.A., at a price of $12.41 per share, totaling over $615 million.
In May, Tether announced it would soon launch QVAC (QuantumVerse Automatic Computer), an intelligent development platform that enables highly scalable AI applications and agents to run directly on local devices without relying on centralized services and cloud infrastructure, thus protecting users from corporate access to private user data.
In June, Tether announced that it had formally requested to participate in Juventus Football Club's capital increase plan in May and applied for a board seat. Tether currently holds over 10% of Juventus Club's shares, making it the second-largest shareholder after the controlling party Exor.
In mid-June, Tether announced a strategic acquisition of equity in Elemental Altus, a Canadian-listed gold royalty company, with the strategy aimed at integrating long-term stable assets like gold and Bitcoin into its ecosystem.
At the end of June, Paolo Ardoino publicly stated again that the brain-computer interface company Blackrock Neurotech, in which Tether invested $200 million last April, is much more advanced than Musk's Neuralink.
Just yesterday, Paolo Ardoino also announced that the open-source password manager PearPass developed by Tether has begun testing and will soon be open-sourced on the platform…
The Best Days Are Behind
With its unparalleled advantage in stablecoin liquidity and adoption, Tether, with only 150 employees, achieved approximately $13 billion in profits in 2024, making it the most profitable company in the cryptocurrency industry and even the entire world.
However, the best days are now behind, and the wild growth phase of stablecoins is coming to an end. In the future, Tether will inevitably face competition from new and old rivals with stronger backgrounds, more thorough compliance, and stricter audits.
For Tether, it is time to look to the future. From the recent pace of expansion, it seems to have realized this.
