Tether intends to improve the finance and compliance divisions by tripling its employment to 200 by the middle of 2025.
TakeAway Points:
- Tether intends to have 200 employees by the middle of 2025, with a concentration on finance and compliance.
- Tether’s $115 billion USDT stablecoin brought in $1.3 billion in earnings in the second quarter, despite having a small crew.
- According to the report, to stop the unauthorised usage of USDT, Tether is improving its monitoring capabilities and collaborating with Chainalysis.
Tether to expand its workforce
Tether Holdings Ltd., the issuer of the $115 billion stablecoin USDT, is set to double its workforce over the next year, aiming to bolster its compliance and finance departments. Chief Executive Officer Paolo Ardoino revealed in an interview with Bloomberg News that the company expects to reach a headcount of about 200 people by mid-2025. Despite its relatively small workforce, Tether has managed to become a financial powerhouse, generating $1.3 billion in profit in the second quarter of this year.
Ardoino emphasized the company’s commitment to maintaining a lean and flexible structure. “We are very proud of the fact that we are very lean and we want to remain lean because we want to be flexible,” he said. “We are very careful when we hire people, we hire only senior people.” This approach contrasts sharply with major crypto exchange operators like Binance Holdings Ltd. and Coinbase Global Inc., which employ thousands of people.
Tether’s past monitoring over illicit use of USDT
According to an earlier report, Tether has faced scrutiny over the illicit use of USDT, particularly in secondary markets where the stablecoin is traded on exchanges and over-the-counter desks. Ardoino noted that monitoring these activities requires “different types of tools that are much more automated.” The primary market, where investors buy or redeem USDT directly from Tether, is less of a concern in this regard.
In April, a Wall Street Journal report detailed how USDT has been used by Russian arms smugglers to evade US sanctions. Tether has stated that it is cooperating with authorities worldwide to ensure that USDT is not used for illegal purposes. In May, the company announced a partnership with Chainalysis Inc. to “methodically monitor transactions,” including capabilities for sanctions screening.
Strategic Investments
The report also stated that Tether has also been putting the yields from its vast holdings of Treasuries to work, making approximately $2 billion worth of startup investments over the past two years. The company has backed firms like Northern Data Group and Bitdeer Technologies Group, a US-listed mining company, and plans to continue its investment activities. A team of just 15 people oversees these investments, according to a June report.
Despite the aggressive investment strategy, Ardoino remains cautious about expanding the workforce too quickly.
“There is nothing that I hate more than all those companies, especially Silicon Valley companies, that hire hundreds of people during bull runs to fire them as soon as there is a downturn in the market. That, I think, is one of the most unfair things you can do to employees,” he said.
