CEO of the company behind USDT: "The truth? I don't care anymore"
After years of criticism and questions surrounding the backing of USDT, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino chose an unusual response. Has the criticism of one of the world's most important crypto companies really ended, or have the questions just changed?
"The truth? I don't care anymore." This is how Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, responded to the ongoing criticism against the company, just days after it announced that it had completed for the first time a full financial audit through the accounting firm KPMG, one of the leaders in the US. In an interview with the website The Block, Ardoino said that in his opinion, some critics simply find it difficult to admit they were wrong.
The simple meaning of a financial audit is that an external auditor examines the company's data and documents to ensure they are presented correctly.
"We have proven ourselves many times," he said.
His words come after years in which Tether, the company that issues the USDT coin, has been at the center of a debate over whether it has enough assets to back all the coins it has issued. USDT is a "stablecoin," a digital currency designed to maintain a value close to one dollar, and therefore trust in the funds and assets backing it is a central part of its operation.
Ardoino also asked to recall an event from 2022, in which, according to him, Tether redeemed about 7 billion dollars within 48 hours, about 10% of its reserves at the time, without stopping the redemption option. However, even after comprehensive checks, questions remained from critics, partly because Tether did not publish the full audit report of KPMG to the public. However, we will recall that the USDT coin is not fully available to the general public in the European Union, after Tether chose not to comply at this stage with the new regulatory requirements of MiCA.
According to the latest reserves report published by the company, at the end of the first quarter of 2026, it stood at about 191.8 billion dollars, of which: about 117 billion dollars are held in US government bonds, holdings of about 19.8 billion dollars in precious metals, about 15.8 billion dollars in collateralized loans, and also other investments and public stocks.
For the Israeli public, the story is broader than a personal confrontation between a CEO and his critics. USDT is one of the most common digital assets in the world and is used by investors, traders, and companies for transferring funds and trading crypto assets. As its use grows, the question of the transparency of the company behind it becomes significant even for those who do not directly hold the coin. The KPMG audit may strengthen Tether's position, but the fact that the full documents are not available to the public leaves room for further examination and criticism. According to many, the public in Israel is already ready for change and is now waiting for the banks in the country to adopt the technology that is increasingly spreading in the developed world.
