Paolo Ardoino, the Chief Technology Officer of Tether (USDT), expects the firm’s profits for the first quarter of 2023 to hit $700M.
In a recent interview, Ardonio revealed that Tether holds $1.7B in excess reserves that remain invested in short-term US Treasury bills. Referring to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) that led to a mass selloff of USD Coin (USDC), he claimed that USDT remains a safe asset as it does not depend on the fractional reserve model used by banks.
According to him, Circle, the issuer of USDC, lacked proper risk management as it left $3B worth of uninsured "funds sitting in the bank." Ardonio, however, noted that the crypto industry will not benefit if the price of USDC drops to zero.
Ardoino made these statements after significant turmoil in the stablecoin market caused by the failure of Silicon Valley Bank. Although the stablecoin prices have since returned to normal, many popular stablecoins lost their peg with USD in the second week of March, with USDT being the only exception.
In fact, Tether recently hit its highest stablecoin market dominance in 18 months, thus retaining its spot as the stablecoin with the highest market cap.