Tether CEO Bitcoin Conference Speech Transcript: We are not a money printing machine, we are a provider of intermediary infrastructure.

Compiled by Ethan, Odaily Daily Report (@OdailyChina)

Translator's note: At the Bitcoin 2025 conference, Tether CEO Daroni Ardoino's speech may not be as "data bombardment" or "concept rush" as traditional Web3 executives, but it was surprisingly real, vivid, and even a little dark humor. He compared Bitcoin to his childhood idol "Wukong" and gold as "Nature's Bitcoin", while complaining about the API key, he emphasized the aesthetics of the peer-to-peer architecture, and casually threw out a sentence: "We are one of the world's largest Bitcoin miners." Paolo Ardoino's keynote speech was not so much a corporate roadshow as it was an expression of technical belief that Tether is trying to broaden the boundaries of stablecoins into a disintermediated infrastructure system, including currency (USDT), value peg (BTC), communication (Keet), intelligent platform (KUBA), and even how identity and sovereignty are constructed. **

Finally, it is most appropriate to conclude with his words: “The cloud is not our friend. Bitcoin is.”

Note: In translating this speech, efforts were made to preserve its first-person perspective and native tone, while also making appropriate refinements and adjustments to some statements based on the English manuscript.

The following is the full text of Paolo Ardoino's speech:

Supporting Bitcoin is truly an exciting thing. I really like it. Please pay more attention to it.

In today's speech, I want to start with this picture. This is my favorite image. It shows my feelings about Bitcoin: Bitcoin is like Wukong. I was born in the 1980s, and "Dragon Ball" is a part of my childhood memories, while Bitcoin is that powerful companion. And Tether is like another friend on the journey—its strength may not be as great, but it is always reliable and important.

Tether started from nothing in 2014 and created the world's first stablecoin—USDT. We have been working hard to create products that people truly need. Just now, I updated a slide with data because this morning, our asset scale just surpassed $153 billion. This was an unexpected development when we prepared the slide two days ago.

I want to talk about a moment that left a deep impression on me, that was the moment the pandemic began. Before that, Tether was mainly used as a medium for cryptocurrency transactions. But since the pandemic started, it quickly transformed into a "digital dollar" used by hundreds of millions of people around the world, becoming a part of their lives.

What's more, as of 2022, we don't even have a formal marketing team. So I can't say that this growth was achieved by "well-run" or "well-advertised". The truth is: when you create a product that people really need, it will naturally grow, and it will naturally spread through word of mouth.

Some data that everyone might be interested in: Last year we achieved a profit of 13 billion dollars. Currently, we hold over 120 billion dollars in U.S. Treasury bonds. In addition, we have also started to invest heavily in Bitcoin. As a company, we now own over 100,000 Bitcoins.

We also hold about 50 tons of gold. Yes, I know that many Bitcoin supporters are not fond of gold and are even reluctant to talk about it, as if gold threatens Bitcoin's position. But I don't think so. Bitcoin is perfect, while gold is imperfect; it does not compete with Bitcoin, it competes with fiat currency.

I personally think that gold can almost be regarded as the "primitive Bitcoin" in nature. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is the "digital gold" we have created. We have about 420 million users in emerging markets and developing countries, accounting for 62% of the decentralized trading volume. What's even more significant is that about 35% of USDT users use it as a savings account—because they live in countries like Turkey, Argentina, and Vietnam, where the local currency depreciates at an astonishing rate, and they can only choose to save in dollars, with USDT being their most practical option.

What do I think about Tether? I believe it is a company that stands in stark contrast to traditional tech companies and financial institutions. Financial and big tech companies often rely on layers of intermediaries: financial intermediaries charge fees from every transaction we make, while tech giants control our data. This is essentially the same thing: we have lost sovereignty over both our money and our data.

Tether's goal is to use technology to provide tools that help people break free from these intermediaries and achieve true individual sovereignty.

We are a company that was born from Bitcoin. Everyone in the company loves Bitcoin. Our headquarters is located in the Bitcoin country - El Salvador. This country has suffered from gang and violence issues for 20 years, and now, under the courageous leadership of the president, it has undergone a transformation. Politicians can really make a difference, and we are seeing a similar transformation in the United States: more and more politicians are beginning to understand the importance of Bitcoin for the country and the world.

One thing we are proud of is that we not only buy Bitcoin but also participate in mining ourselves. Yes, by the end of this year, we may become the world's largest Bitcoin mining company—surpassing all listed companies.

Many people will ask: You already hold so many bitcoins, why do you still mine? The answer is: Bitcoin mining is our own asset hedging method. We are not only holders of bitcoin but also participants in network security. We use our own computing power to protect the security of this network.

We are also promoting infrastructure development, such as the launch of WDK (Wallet Development Kit), to help every company, application, website, and AI Agent access non-custodial Bitcoin wallets. I do not believe that future AI Agents should access custodial services through APIs; instead, they should have their own independent wallets, be able to be assigned assets, and perform tasks for humans, rather than being constrained by the rules of a specific company.

Recently, we launched our own AI platform—KUBA, inspired by Asimov's 1956 short story "The Last Question." The question we want to answer is: "How can we reverse the entropy of the universe?" This platform focuses on local reasoning and is compatible with any device: from a $30 Android phone in Africa to high-performance servers, all are supported. The AI we hope to create is decentralized and serves society, rather than being a tool for extracting user data and profiting enterprises.

We also invested in the Plan B network and are its largest supporter. Although "Plan B" has a different meaning in the United States (laughs), we give it a new connotation: when Plan A fails, everyone should have their own Plan B—capable of monetary sovereignty and communication technology sovereignty.

We also collaborate with universities worldwide through the Tether education program to promote Bitcoin education; invest in the BTC Pay Server open-source project to advance Bitcoin payment infrastructure; partner with the city of Lugano, Switzerland to host the Plan B summit and sponsor local football clubs, bringing the Bitcoin brand to European stadiums; we also joined forces with Fulgur to create a venture capital fund to invest in Bitcoin startups.

We have partnered with the video platform Rumble and invested $775 million. They also have their own Bitcoin treasury. We will launch a Bitcoin-centric wallet product to make it easier for more people to get started.

In addition, we have developed a peer-to-peer communication application - Keet. It is still in the alpha testing phase, but it already supports peer-to-peer distribution of high-frequency voice, text, video, files, and other content, without a central server throughout the process. We aim to prove that "the cloud" is not our friend; it is merely an illusion imposed on us, a tool for extracting our data.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone very much. I know I spoke for a bit long, but it is an immense honor for me to be here in the United States, sharing this content with all of you colleagues. Together, we strive for the future of Bitcoin.

Thank you, everyone!