Even by crypto’s often surreal standards, Tether has a quirky history. The company was founded in 2014 by Brock Pierce, a cryptocurrency evangelist who starred as a child actor in the “Mighty Ducks” movies. He and his partner, Reeve Collins, later transferred control of the company to a former plastic surgeon named Giancarlo Devasini, who has stored some of Tether’s assets in a bank in the Bahamas run by one of the creators of Tether. the cartoon ‘Inspector Gadget’.
Tether has grown rapidly. Last year, it issued about 50 billion stablecoins, more than tripling its global supply. “If we have to cash in to the last cent, we can,” Mr Ardoino said in the interview.
The company is run by approximately 50 employees in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Its CEO, JL van der Velde, is a Dutch businessman whose LinkedIn profile suggests he is based in Hong Kong; the company declined to confirm its location. He and Mr. Devasini, the chief operating officer, rarely speak in public. The public face of Tether is Mr. Ardoino, who describes his colleagues as “normal people” who are amazed at the company’s growth.
“They didn’t think it might get that big at first,” said Mr. Ardoino. “They were not willing to be public persons. There is nothing bad about it.”
Tether has sometimes insisted that its stablecoins were fully backed by US dollars. But last year, New York Attorney General Letitia James called those claims “a lie.”
A few years earlier, a cryptocurrency exchange affiliated with Tether had lost $850 million in a failed business deal. To cover the losses, the exchange, Bitfinex, took out loans from Tether’s reserves, leaving the stablecoin partially unsecured, according to Ms. James’s research.
