USA₮ - Tether in America – TOKEN2049 Singapore 2025

All right. Well, welcome everybody. Uh, we are very excited for this today. You know, uh, Paulo, as you've probably seen, Bo, as you've probably seen already, have been speaking, you know, at token about USAT a little bit. So, when I was thinking about this panel, what I was trying to to think about is, you know, what would be unique and what would be new.

And what I realized is, you know, we had our announcement obviously for USAT, but collectively this group has not been together yet in terms of talking about USAT, about the partnership and about kind of the expectations and what we're excited about. So, you know, I think today is going to be a really unique opportunity. I'm very excited about it and uh I hope you are too. So, with that, I'm going to start with you, Paulo. you know, um, this has been really an amazing year.

You know, when we think back to you taking over as the CEO of Tether since you have, there's been explosive growth. You know, we've seen that already. Obviously, expansion into additional services. We've gotten into mining. We've we've gotten into AI, you know, additional tech.

Um, and so, you know, with you at the helm, I think this was already an exciting time for Tether. Um but in the past year, US engagement has started again, right? And most recently, what's amazing is U you know, Tether is coming back to the US. Um you know, we left in 2021. Uh and at this point, I think the conditions were right.

I think the people were right. Um and and we're coming back. And you know, I guess the first question that I have when we think about this is with the launch of USAT and this establishment, you know, what does that interplay potentially look like? Uh I know you talked a little bit about what you were excited about for the future in one of your previous sessions, but I think it would be exciting for this group to kind of hear what that interplay looks like between Tether and and what we do USDT and what USAT is going to do. So um definitely 2025 was a very interesting year.

I personally never been to the United States until the 2nd of March 2025 and the 18th of July of 2025 I was shaking the hand of President Trump. So it's kind of like an interesting very very expedited journey. Um it's great to see the administration in United States um changing dramatically and radically compared to the previous administration. Um you know we all remember the operation chockpoint 2.0 you know um uh the OC being very aggressive and the SEC being very aggressive to towards crypto companies and that all changed and um it is setting the stage for United States to actually lead um the work with in another field that is the digital assets and blockchain industry and um many many of us expected uh finally a change and that happened with President Trump.

So you you asked me about the interoperability or the the play across all our ecosystem. So you know many people ask me why you have two stable coins USDT and now USAT. Um the reason is simple. USDT was a stable coin is a stable coin that is designed for um the emerging markets in developing countries. Yesterday I had my keynote.

I expressed how is important to design products that are solving problems in people's lives. People that live in um in Argentina, in um Colombia, in Turkey, in um in Brazil, in Vietnam, in uh in Nigeria and so on, right? So USDT is the digital dollar for 500 million people and counting every quarter grows by 30 million new wallets. It's almost like I said it yesterday, money is the ultimate social network. But the realization is that in the United States, you have the financial rails that are 90% efficient already.

You people have most of the people have bank accounts, credit cards, debit cards, cash app, zel, PayPal, you name it. If you take a country like Nigeria or or uh others, they uh the financial rails are much less efficient. maybe 10 20 30 40%. Uh in certain countries you have the concept of mobile money. So that is phone credit used as money.

So with that it's very hard with mobile money is as a phone credit is very hard to participate to the global economy and to have the same opportunities that people in Europe or in the United States have. So USDT is solving all that because with USDT the financial rails that might be 20% efficient in Nigeria they can become 60 70% efficient thank to USDT but in United States the efficiency is already 90%. And so you need to design a product that will move the needle in a very competitive market like the United States one. And that is what USAT is about is a product that is speaking to the digital economy through partnerships like Rumble and others. Rumble has 51 million active users per month.

Imagine um bringing them all aboard using stable coins and purchasing digital assets and getting exposure to digital assets. That alone and it's not only that but that alone will be one of the biggest onboardings into crypto in the history of our industry. But aside that then uh through um me and Bo met and u we started thinking how we can uh bring the values and maintain the values of USDT and the general values of Tether but apply them in the use case of uh within the United States starting from on one side their retail as I said through the Rumble wallet and and similar initiatives but then going towards the institutional side but on the rails on the TAC rails USDT and UST will be fully interoperable, onetoone swappable. So that through um D5 rails and also centralized rails. So you can have that super seamless user experience um that will mask the complexity of having two products but at the same time so serve the needs of the two um environments.

Fantastic. Well, you mentioned Bo and uh you know I actually met Bo before you did, right? right after he had taken his role uh at the White House. And you know, one of the things that struck me is obviously before I met Bo, I was already familiar with what your your vision was and what you saw for USDT, but also what the impact of USD has on the US economy and the US dollar, right? Um, and so what really struck me when I met Bo was the fact that there was real alignment in terms of what he thought the value of stable coins was and Tether and what that potential participation was and meant for the US dollar around the globe.

Um, and obviously, you know, from there I think we saw genius. We saw what happened Bo and and the successes there. And for those of you that don't actually know Bo, he is like a guided missile. Um I have worked in DC for many years and I have never met another person like him and I think uh all credit to you for for getting genius done.

But uh with with that being said, you know, I guess my first question for you is uh when you think about USAT, you've talked a little bit about what you think is going to happen in terms of adoption. Um, what was the most exciting thing to you about joining Tether and becoming the CEO of USAT?

Well, look, I mean, Tether is by far and away the most important company in the crypto ecosystem. And for us in the administration, we were looking at Genius and stable coin legislation. We had to make, you know, a really important decision. If you want to be the crypto capital of the world, you must have the most important players in the space on shore. And so post exit from my position in the White House, I was looking for an opportunity to build and participate in the space um to really solidify what we were doing from a regulatory perspective.

I felt like it could be done in the private sector and that institutional integration needed to happen now. Obviously given Tether's presence globally. U I felt like this was the best and most unique opportunity to participate uh from the private sector side. And so Paulo and I linked up. We started discussing what this would look like.

And then lo and behold, Genius did what it was intended to do, which was onshore the best and brightest innovators uh that are working with the greatest partners uh with Anchorage, with Caner. Um you know, this is a phenomenal group of people. And so uh I apologize for any repetitiveness from the fireside earlier, but there's probably new new faces in this room. You know, I think the most unique thing that we're going to be watching is just how this technology is integrated into the current US financial system. So one of the biggest challenges we had with operation chokepoint is that it was an immense barrier for traditional financial banks to interact with digital asset firms in the US.

So we had to ensure that we were eradicating um all the minutia and friction that was created by the Biden admin. And like I said earlier most founders and innovators in the space in the US were basically victims of policym through persecution and prosecution. I mean that's how the law was established. they would go after somebody u in in very gray areas and then figure out how to piece together the law in the back end. And so we had to be proactive, but it started in, you know, this three-step process of one removing the barriers that existed um working to set new rules, then obviously uh through legislation, making sure that these new rules had a lasting impact.

And so with Genius now, I think we're looking at a world in the US in which it's a completely revolutionized financial system. the barriers no longer exist as operation chokepoint has been successfully eradicated. And so now these firms and the traditional banks are looking for ways to integrate this technology. You know, one of the more interesting things that I I found in my time at the White House is they were they started to race to our our our office and say who are the best people to work with? And it was hard for me to answer that question because yes, there are great people on shore like Anchorage and folks operating in the space like Caner, but for the most part, a lot of the best builders had left, right?

And so this is such an important time for the United States specifically and with actors like Tether with with actors like Anchorage and Caner, we can all come together and provide a product that institutions can actually adopt and offer as a retail product to their customers. So it'll be the first time that banks can act as a custodian and this updates the financial rails in the US system. So yes, they might be 90% efficient. I think that this takes us maybe to 98 and then the L1's will compete for more efficiency and you get closer and closer. But we have an incredible opportunity to now introduce a lot of the traditional financial players to emerging markets, creating seamless corridors and interoperability between UST and USDT.

And I think that's really exciting. It's really exciting for the American consumer in terms of having, you know, expeditious or really instant settlement times and more cost-ffective transactions. Um, it's exciting for traders. It's exciting for banks in terms of B2B settlements. And I think that Tether is is the most unique agnostic product that banks can use between themselves.

And so when I look at this product, I think yes, obviously we'll have a large retail presence. And I think that as soon as stable coins become a transfer of value rather than just uh a volatility hedge, you're going to see the world change in tremendous ways. And so at USAT, our mission is to create that change. And I think we're well on our way of doing that.

Fantastic. Well, you mentioned partners, right? You mentioned our partners. Obviously, everybody's up here today and uh what I'll say about Paulo also is that he's a perfectionist. So, you have to understand that the partners that we then have are going to be perfect, right?

And we're very strategic in the partners that we pick and I think we're very excited about the partners that we have here. Um and that leads me to you Brandon. You know, when we talk about Caner Fitzgerald, Caner was there for us uh as a financial institution in the US when you know that was not potentially a popular thing to do. Caner has been there to support us through many different processes that that we've gone through, audit, etc. Uh, and it is not something that we forget.

You know, Caner has been a real trusted partner to us, the preferred custodian for USAT. Um, when you think about the partnership between Caner and Tether, um, going forward, you know, what does that what does that look like to you?

Yeah, thanks, Jesse. And I think, you know, this group up here has been a long time coming and I look to my left and I'm incredibly grateful to be on stage with you guys. Um, just to give a little more context about Caner, you know, I think most of you may know us because we were located on top of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. We were by far uh the most affected. We lost 658 employees, friends, family that day, including my uncle Gary Lutnick, who was 36.

But we built back um we took care of the families along the way. And today, you know, Caner is thriving. Uh, you know, we've doubled our investment bank size in the last 12 months, 18 months. Uh, we were number one in US equity IPOs in first half 25. Number one spa underwriter and first half 25, you know, one of 25 US primary dealers.

Um, we are really the last private investment bank and I think the only investment bank at this entire conference. And you know what that really shows you is why caner special is because we're private. So we can be nimble, we can be flexible, we can move commit to areas we want to commit to and that you know really allowed us to move into the crypto space. you know the Canther team uh you know really saw the future uh during co we went out we met you know hundreds of companies and when we met tether when we met pala we were you know blown away by the opportunity you know we saw the real world use case of stable coins of tether you know not just dollar gemony but just as bo said like when the actual trading the actual value of stable coins you know crossber the usage of it um you know I had the privilege of spending you know months with Paulo and the team in Lugano you know, they really taught me everything I know. You know, I'm very very lucky uh to call Paulo, you know, you, Jesse, everyone at Tether a close friend.

Um, and you know, Caner has been with Tether through thick and thin. And I think, you know, we we really plan, we know we'll be committed to the industry for a long time, to Tether for a long time, Bo Anchorage for a long time, and, you know, USAT is just the next evolution, and we're super happy to be part of it.

I love that. So, Nathan, we're going to come to you.

You know,

we mentioned unpopular here. I think, you know, Anchorage was a first mover in many ways when it comes to licensing, right? And interestingly, if you look back a couple years ago, the fact that you were licensed almost looked like a deficiency, right? When we were talking about Operation Chokepoint and the stuff that you guys were facing, right? Um, and what a difference a year makes, right?

Because now Anchorage is in pole position. I think thanks to your leadership and the way in which you guys have looked at this space for as long as you have cuz you and I have known each other for a long time, right?

You guys have been around. Um so, you know, Anchorage is going to be the issuer for USAT. You know, when when you were thinking about that, you know, once Genius passed, you realized that there was that direct alignment there, right? Um what was attractive about Tether and launching USAT and what went into that process? Yeah.

I mean, I think one of the things that I think a lot of people may not appreciate about this current administration in the US, uh, President Trump and just all the leadership that's in the White House, a lot of people think that this is the this pro- crypto stance that's being taken there is a new is a new development. um uh when when President Trump decided to run for reelection, uh I knew that he would be a pro- crypto uh candidate because I viewed him as the really the innovator in the space. uh we actually received our bank charter from the federal bank regulator uh during the first Trump administration and so in many ways there was a real sense that there was a trailblazing happening uh even in the first administration and to so to see such a positive outcome happen uh during this administration was not a not a surprise to me at all. Uh, Anchorage's goal has always been to work with the the most innovative, thoughtful, and uh, really forward-leaning uh, companies, institutions, and uh, and protocols and technologists. And it was it was always uh, something we really wanted to do was to to find a way to work with the team at Tether.

Uh, they were true innovators. I mean, stable coins back in the the mid teens, this was an incredible incredible innovation for the dollar. Um, we actually tried to argue to the Biden administration time after time after time that stable coin should be a strategic asset of the United States. Uh, and uh, Tether has always been, I think, one of the the most key strategic assets uh, of the United States and and what they've been doing. Uh, and so the the opportunity to get to have an a real chance to to partner uh with Tether and to work on um what I think is going to be advancing the cause of the US dollar, advancing the cause of crypto um more broadly has just been incredible opportunity.

And you're totally right. Uh there was a there's a long period of time where um it didn't look like it was good to have been a a regulatory first uh licensing first organization. One of our one of our funny kind of ironic issues that we h we had during the bid administration is that we as a national bank ourselves got debanked which is kind of ridiculous when you on the face of it when you look at that uh but that's that is one thing that happened to us and so um to be turning around uh so positively now and being able to uh operate so well and to to work with uh incredible uh leaders in space just truly a humbling honor. Happy to be here. Wonderful.

Well, look, I'll come back, you know, and I I think where we go from here is I'll just start asking some questions to the group, you know, um because I think we can have some fun with that. And the the first one that I'll ask uh and we're we're throwing a bone to the prediction markets here is collectively for all you guys, you know, where do you see USAT 1 3 5 years from now? What does that look like to you? So my target for USAT in u 3 to five years will be about $1 trillion and I think is uh realistic because of uh the velocity of which um we are seeing USDT growing by the same time the opportunity that um you know B also was uh describing about. So the entire financial industry will move uh towards stable coins as a faster better way more efficient way to settle across trading venues interbanking and all that.

So also the entire we have to think about how in five years AI the AI economy will be insanely big. There will be trillions of AI trillions of AI agents and these AI agents will do many more transactions than uh humans and all these AI agents will use stable coins. Um there is no doubt about it. I think that we need to do a lot of work in the next 5 years. Also from the infrastructure point of view um from the blockchain point of view um I think that layer 2s that we have today are completely incapable to sustain that growth.

And so that's something that um uh Tedar is focusing on uh as well. But um that is I'm very bullish on the the opportunity here because it's just the unlock is unprecedented. It's probably one of the biggest unlocks in in the recent financial history.

You know, I would say that the opportunity that's created from connecting US institutions that have been basically all but blocked from emerging markets in terms of instant settlements is enormous. And so as the technology is integrated and tokenization continues to occur, you'll start to see stable coin adoption run a parallel path. And I think that um you know, Secretary Besson at the Treasury predicted that the stable coin global market cap would be above 1 trillion in the next couple of years. I think that realistically that's a very conservative estimate. I think it could be much greater than that.

Um and you think about USAT as a product that creates a seamless on and off ramp and out of tokenized public securities. uh it becomes very attractive for many folks inside of the financial system to use especially in the B2B side. So as we continue to work on exactly the platform roll out and who we're partnering with, I think it's going to create a ton of excitement and um look I like the market cap prediction of 1 trillion in 5 years. I think it's a good target for us to hit and I think it's very reasonable.

Yeah, I mean uh Pal and I have joked uh about what the T in USAT stands for. uh one one joke there is that the T is for trillions. Uh so uh don't know if I can uh predict exactly but I think like directionally what we see with technologies like this that so fundamentally change the the nature of human interaction um you can countless technology things when you when you first look at Uber you think okay this is as big as the taxi market. No it turns out it's way bigger uh it's an incredible global market that can come there. uh Airbnb proved that the the biggest hotel in the world doesn't even need to have a building and and that you could really see true market expansion because of that.

Uh and so I think what we're seeing with stable coins is a fundamental advancement in money itself which is something that has been relatively stagnant as a technology uh you know since its since its inception. Uh so the the opportunity to to kind of see incredible new use cases, incredible new uh acceleration on the retail side, for the institutional side, there's so much risk in the institutional markets now that come because of the fact that uh money is not able to move as quickly as it can. um we're going to see a a real expansion in a bunch of the use cases that are here and in many ways I would say take some of the fundamental advancements that Bitcoin brought uh in terms of instant settlement uh global nature applying that uh to the the dollar itself uh is going to see um uh really pretty profound uh impact across the world. Yeah, I mean I'd also add that USAT is the greatest product, the greatest company coming to the greatest economy, you know, and that's what this that's what really this is about. Um, you know, Tether is great for the world, right?

It it it banks the unbanks the unbanked. Uh, it allows people that live in countries with, you know, very inflationary currencies to get access to the greatest currency, the US dollar. Um and what you'll see with USAT is uh that continuation of uh bettering the lives of people around the globe. You know, I think reminces is a core business that you know we've spoken out as a group a bunch of times. You know, the way reminces currently work is if you want to send money home to your mother, uh to your brother, uh companies will charge you a large fee to send it and then we'll charge you a large FX fee on the back end.

Um, and when you think about stable coins, you think about Tether, you think about USAT, that process will become seamless, quick, easy, and frictionless, and with little to no fees the entire time. So, helping better the people in 5 years, USA will be great.

Love it. Love it. Well, look, you know, I think one of the things that that has been, I think, excited to the exciting to the the space in terms of what people have heard about is the fact that this is going to have some kind of institutional focus to it, right? Um, which, you know, traditionally is not the case for USDT. Uh, I think the question I'll pose to the grow to the group now and Bo, you've already talked a little bit about this is in terms of that institutional adoption, we now have the regulation in the US, right?

this has happened which means that technically the door is open. So the question is you know how quickly do you guys think that the financial institutions are going to adopt stables? How quickly do you think they're going to adopt USAT really is what we're talking about here? Uh and what do you think that looks like? And then the follow would be do you see any potential barriers?

Look, I think it's going to be immediate. Um given the partnerships on this stage, I don't see any barriers that would exist, right? Because this is the first fully licensed stable product that exists in the United States, which you know gives banks tremendous optionality in terms of how they can offer the product to customers and obviously settle between themselves. And so I think that at the end of the day as the technology is integrated, it's going to change the way in which global trade works. It's going to change the way in which banks interact with one another.

And I think what's important to understand too is that being an agnostic product, we get to work with everybody. Um I think a problem that some of these banks might run into that are thinking about launching their own stable is that u other banks aren't going to want to settle in another bank's stable coin. And so with Tether, the distribution channels are already there. um the license is there with our great issuer in Anchorage and our technology is incredible in terms of just seamless integration uh with the current tech that exists that's offered to their customers. And so I think that's what makes us a very powerful uh combination is that we're able to give them things that others can't.

And that's one thing that I've been blown away by in my first month at Tether is just how much incredible technology is actually being built here just even outside of the stablecoin process whether it's an AI uh whether it's with tokenization um I mean there's so many things going on and as Paulo describes Tether is the stable company u but there's a lot underneath that in terms of layers and technology that we're building and I'm sure that Paulo can elucidate on what many of those product offerings are but they all seamlessly tie in together to make sure that we're are giving the institutions the easiest way to access this this technology and provide it to their customers and I think that that'll be a tremendous recipe for success long term and allows them to engage with us um immediately.

I think that um when it comes to institutions you have to um predict their necessities and their barriers as um is something that you ask. So what we did at tether uh we created multiple products. One is uh called Hadron uh from name taken from the harsh collider um in uh in Geneva and um the idea there is to create to reuse uh the entire technological stack that is that has been powering USDT for the last 11 years. USDT is the biggest exercise of real world assets tokenization that that in the history of humanity and so taking that technology perfected for not only us to use internally but uh to to make it available uh also in a non-custodial way to all our partners and banks and institutions that want to tokenize any sort of asset and also have access to um uh USAT and start issuing and and redeeming in a very dynamic way. That was very fundamental.

So we come to this uh to the USAT um time very rarely with that technology. But on top of that we are building a product called uh WDK. So wallet development kit that is um a software stack an SDK that um aims to will be open sourced and aims to empower every single developer to build its own wallet. So we want to have 1 billion wallets. Right now there are like few companies that have their own wallets and they keep the technology very close to their chest as they see wallets being a distribution channel.

But actually what we want to do is to we see the need from institutions to have their own wallets with their own branding with their own label where they can ensure that their customers are going to have a good user experience integrated with their platform. So we are building that technological layer so that every single institution, every single company can take our technology and build their own wallet. We are going to help them of course and so even every single AI agent can have in the future with our technology anodial wallet that can this this technology can scale from an embedded device a very tiny device even you know we are investors on a brain computer interface company like narrowink but better um and that brain that um WDK that wallet development kit can even run on a brain computer interface That's the care of design that we put in every single product. You can have your wallet in your own mind. So this is the things that we are already thinking about in ter might seem very futuristic but um you know these are the the type of softwares that are behind the scenes being built by our company but in the short term of course uh we want to empower every single institution company small mediumsiz company um to and also large huge conglomerates to have their branding on their wallet with the best user experience fully open source fully security audited and um it's an unbeatable offer in my opinion I mean, dialing in on experience for a minute, I think that's a great point.

You know, you say sometimes, Paulo, that you spend how many hours thinking about stable coins?

Um, you have to think about stable coins for at least 10,000 hours.

At least 10,000

hours per uh you know, in order to uh think about all the possible outcomes like is a 4D chess play. So if uh if you don't think enough, you will come out come up with many questions or many ideas that we thought a lot in the past and we shut down just because we're not practical. And I think to that point, you know, success is is going to be much more likely when you have the company that has spent more time developing the tech, thinking about this, creating the infrastructure than you're ever going to see otherwise. And that also applies to compliance, you know, because when we talk about when we talk about the banks, we talk about transparency and compliance. I think that's always something that's critical.

You know, we have built out a best-in-class program when it comes to that. And Anchorage obviously has a best-in-class program. You know, do you guys think that that is going to be also a position of strength when it comes to that institutional engagement?

Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think one of the one of the things that's been interesting at Anchorage, we've been focusing solely on institutions uh since inception and in 2017 2018 and how institutions could adopt crypto and you've seen early adopters to say venture capital funds start to invest uh and now we're we're getting to the point where say the large financial institutions are starting to look at things. I think there was a there was a undercurrent in a lot of the very large financial institutions that crypto was kind of a sideshow. It was kind of a niche product that maybe they could ignore for a while. Once the Genius Act passed, once we became clear that the the crypto ecosystem is going to be talking about a fundamental reinvention of money and settlement itself, all of a sudden now this is something that you can't ignore.

Uh and so I think what we're going to see across the board is an incredible acceleration in uh institutional adoption uh both of of stables and uh probably other other cryptos assets assets as well but particularly uh adoption of USAT because of this uh you know incredible track record that the uh that the the team at Tether and the team assembled here is a going to be able to bring to bear on that. Part of that is uh tech technology at banks is a a big part of the problem. The other part of it is building compliance solutions. Building solutions that follow regulations, allow them to operate freely and and understand all the different use cases um and uh different uh sets of rules and requirements they need to follow. Uh many of the world's largest financial institutions have to follow rules not just in their country but in every country they operate on earth.

Uh and so the level of complexity that comes in on some of the on some of the compliance areas is uh really really pretty overwhelming. But uh once you kind of knock down all those dominoes, figure out all the different kind of use cases that need to come together there, uh what you end up with is uh an incredible ability to move. And uh the fact that we uh have been operating as a federally chartered bank for many years now kind of proves the case. And I think that, you know, Tether's been operating in the space for so long, has uh the the best compliance program in all of uh the the entire stable coin ecosystem. Uh that combination is really going to be a a tremendous tremendously powerful combination to bring to all the world's financial institutions.

Fantastic. Well, look, we didn't mention this, but you know, Tether is opening its first office in the US for USAT. We picked Charlotte, North Carolina. So, you know, this one is is definitely for B and for Paulo. How did you select Charlotte, you know, strategically?

Uh, and can you tell us a little bit about that?

Well, look, I was born and raised in Charlotte, so the city is obviously near and dear to my heart. Um, I lived with both on the north side of the city and now the south south side of the city. You know, Charlotte's a unique place because it's it's kind of in the middle of the corridor between New York and Florida. And obviously, you know, there's a lot of foot traffic between those that Palm Beach area in the financial space and and um obviously the financial capital of the United States being New York. But I like to characterize Charlotte as being like the many finance capital of the United States.

Obviously, we have um Bank of America headquartered there along with Truist. Wells Fargo has a tremendous presence there as well. And you you see a lot of private equity plays and um and VCs that are that are moving to Charlotte too. The cost of living is fantastic. Uh the banks in the operating side are doing a lot of work in the city.

So as we talk about integration of these technologies and helping some of these players in the traditional financial space understand where we're going, um we felt like that would be the best place to be. And I think you're going to see others in the digital asset ecosystem um start to to to move to Charlotte as well um just given the fact that we're establishing the first large presence there. obviously being our headquarters and um it's something that I'm extremely excited about. I think it'll be great for the city. It'll be great in a sense of just representing what this collaboration is going to look like as the digital asset world merges with with traditional financial institutions.

Um so I think it sets it sets a a great example. Um and we were fortunate to be able to host Pilo there not not too long ago. So let you give his experience and Brandon for that matter as well. Well, I think that um you know, I've been in the United States only for uh for a short period of of my life. I only saw a few cities.

Uh definitely New York is a is a very beautiful city. The Italian food is not that good. The pizza, forget about it.

Except the carbone, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Carbon, but uh you know, the the you know, very thick pizza is not a thing. Sorry. And and um but um I I love Charlotte.

I think that Charlotte is more uh suited for tatter because it's like a uh a more let me use this term down to earth um environment is simple is more open uh like open air as well um I feel like we can be there very well connected to the local environment as well as uh um be in uh in something that resembles uh an ecosystem a natural ecosystem where we like to live as a company. We are all distributed around the world. Um we we don't have huge offices in huge towers. Um we have uh probably people coming uh so we have around 300 people coming from 60 70 different countries in Tedar and so that that type of environment I think suits more more us as a company.

Well Brandon and I had an epic bowling match in Charlotte that came down to uh the final frame. So that was that was exciting.

You just wanted to bring up that you beat me. I thought you were going to get me there.

Wonderful. All right. Well, look, we've got a little over five minutes left. You know, I guess a couple questions come to mind. The first is, you know, and maybe we'll start with you on this one, Bo.

You know, but I think it really is for everybody. Also, when we think about the regulatory environment in the US, it looks very promising right now, you know, going forward. Number one, would you agree with that assessment? Number two, you know, we've talked about USAT, but holistically in relation to that US market for stables, what do you guys think that looks like?

Well, look, you know, from a regulatory perspective, um, there's still one piece of the puzzle that's left and that's market structure legislation in the United States. And having, you know, the dual jurisdiction regime process between the CFTC and SEC, um, makes this very challenging for many of the builders and developers, uh, that are domestic. And so, you know, they need to get clear answers and the clear rules of the road of how they can engage um especially with the traditional financial institutions that exist along with with their customers. And I think that the hardest question we have to answer is you know the security origination line and where something can be started as a security become a commodity and you know who has jurisdictional authority over that inside of the the US regulatory system. The good news is everyone inside of the administration is extremely pro digital assets.

The work that Secretary Lutnik done at Commerce is amazing. they actually just uh put information government information on chain for the first time. So we're starting to show integration of these technologies from a government perspective as well. Secretary Besson obviously extremely supportive. Um you know chairman Paul Atkins at the SEC has done absolutely a phenomenal job of cleaning up a lot of the mess that was created by the Biden administration.

Um we'll see what happens in terms of the next CFTC chair. But at the end of the day I think that they're they're very well off in a sense of getting clarity which is a market structure legislation through. I think that once they do, the US will certainly become, you know, the crypto capital of the world as the president has has sought to deliver. And it's a testament really to his leadership in the space as Nathan mentioned and we, you know, I'd be remiss not to to also mention the fact that we have a brilliant AI and cryptos are and David Saxs who laid out a tremendous vision for how to accomplish this and wanted to start with Genius to update the the current financial rails that existed um domestically, but then also provide the clarity that a lot of our exchanges needed in folks that were building in the space as well. So, they'll they'll sort through that.

I'm optimistic that they can get something done. And Patrick Whit, who has now replaced me as the executive director of Crypto Council, um is extremely bright, well-versed, understands the political space and the environment in Washington. Um you know, I feel really confident about his ability to deliver. Nathan.

Yeah. I mean, I think the the thing that I think was really encouraging about the the way the Genius Act passed, particularly the one that kind of come in and set the rules of the road for uh stable coins, was it a pass with uh bipartisan support? And so when uh Jesse described what you just would you describe, bro, as a rocket, like a

guided missile heat seeeking missile. uh the the the work that Bo did to uh get bipartisan support for the Genius Act has uh set this industry up extremely well to not just grow during this administration but really grow for the next century. Um the the the clear understanding across the board in the US that uh stable coins are good for the US dollar which is good for America. uh it it it's basically uh accepted um consensus within Washington. Uh and so I think we've got a a really long runway here uh to be able to build to build confidently to make the long-term investments that are needed to uh you know kind of replplatform the institutions.

Uh so it's um I think it's going to be really exciting and it's really a testament to the great work that Bo did there. I mean, I would add to that, too, that there really shouldn't be anything partisan about financial technological innovation, right? And as you're as you're thinking about this as a country when you're wearing your your government hat, you say this is the best thing for the United States and the US consumers. And we're hoping that the rest of the world will follow suit. Like we think about Mika and the way that they're set up and others and different jurisdiction regimes that exist now.

I think that we're setting a clear standard of how things should operate. I think that others will will match that standard very quickly. Yeah, I would say that one of the biggest achievement of um of the genius art is going to um push every other country in the world to take a look at that piece of regulation and um and adopt it. Um I think that even the Mika license will need to adjust itself to a better standard um a more conservative standard that is the Genius Act compared to to to Mika. And you know we are now we are at the stage where there are many central banks in emerging markets that are asking us about um our um feedback on u on the genius act and uh what they should use as a template and they are all um going leaning towards the genus act.

So I think we are going to see a lot new a lot of news in the next 12 months from um regulatory sandboxes to more complete uh regulatory regimes but u it's a clear path to me.

I mean that domino effect again I think you know as we've talked about the USX as as a catalyst to some of these markets and I think that's also really exciting for USAT in terms of what it potentially does. So, look, we're about to wrap here. I guess from each of you, if you have 30 seconds, you know, um closing remarks, you know, what you're most excited about from this partnership and from USAT.

I mean, what I'm most excited about is uh the US really opening their arms. You know, to be the leader in tech, you can't just be the leader in AI. You need to be the leader in in crypto. to be the leader in crypto, you need to welcome the greatest company in crypto, which is Tether. And that's what uh Bo helped with, and that's what this administration did incredibly well.

Um, and this has been an incredibly long time coming, and I'm super grateful to be a part of it. I'm just very um excited and entertained to every time I think about I I spend most of my time thinking about how you know where we are going as as a company strategy and um I think the the opportunity that we have we are very lucky as a company given you know the what we build the tech but also the profitability. So we have an an entire highway uh of opportunities not just for us but all our partners. I mean we we we try to build everything in the open. We try to build everything in an open source way so that everyone can piggy back on our infrastructure that we're creating for everyone.

We never like I think that the success of Tedar is actually create infrastructure that is not a walled garden infrastructure so that everyone could use it uh no string attached. So that is something that um is going to become much more evident in the next uh couple of quarters. Look, I'll just say there's no greater public private relationship or partnership than the US government and Tether. The introduction of USAT is going to empower consumers. It's going to create more freedom um and more opportunity for free transactions to exist globally.

So, it empowers really the rest of the world. So, we're excited to introduce this product and work with these tremendous partners and you know many future other partners as well.

Yeah. just uh I think the the incredible thing about this this conference, everyone here that's building in the in the crypto ecosystem is that in many ways uh Tether and USA are the killer app for everything that you're building. If you're building a chain, if you're building a DeFi protocol, if you're building fintex, anything you're integrating uh like the the one of the most core use cases can be utilizing Tether and and USA. And so thank you for all the work that you're doing and looking forward to uh working with all of you.

Great. Awesome. Thank you everyone.

Thank you very much everyone.