Tether could become one of the five largest buyers of U.S. Treasury securities, according to CEO Paolo Ardoino, as the stablecoin operator's reserves expand with rising USDT demand.
Speaking on The Wolf of All Streets podcast, Ardoino said Tether would move from a top-10 to a top-five buyer of Treasuries, adding that the company is already effectively among the top five buyers at three-month Treasury auctions when hedge-fund purchases routed through jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands are excluded. Tether's first-quarter 2026 attestation reported about $141 billion of direct and indirect exposure to U.S. Treasury bills as of March 31, against roughly $183.4 billion in USDT-related liabilities.
The company serves approximately 650 million users, mostly in emerging markets. Ardoino said this distributes ownership of U.S. government debt across hundreds of millions of individuals. Tether's net Treasury purchases reached an estimated $33.1 billion in 2024 and $28.2 billion in 2025.
The broader stablecoin trend could amplify this dynamic. The U.S. Treasury's Borrowing Advisory Committee modeled stablecoin T-bill holdings rising to almost $1 trillion by 2028, while Standard Chartered estimates stablecoin market capitalization could hit $2 trillion by end-2028, generating $800 billion to $1 trillion of additional T-bill demand.
In a separate interview, Ardoino said Tether is expanding its dollar network through USDT while investing in Bitcoin and gold as hedges against fiat debasement. He highlighted a generational shift in Bitcoin adoption, especially among younger investors, and said the strategy is designed to stabilize Tether's value proposition amid economic uncertainty and regulatory scrutiny.
