INTELLIGENCE · PERSON DOSSIER
UPDATED 2026-08-13Paolo Ardoino
Founders & CEOs
Tether · El Salvador (Formerly British Virgin Islands)
Net worth
c. $38bn (Forbes estimate, 2026)
Stake in Tether
c. 19% (Forbes estimate, February 2026)
Alternative estimate
Tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index
Source of wealth
Equity in Tether Holdings
Valuation reference point
$500bn valuation sought in 2025 capital raise
Identity & Ownership
Current role
Chief Executive Officer, Tether
Tether announced his appointment on 12 October 2023, effective December 2023, succeeding Jean-Louis van der Velde. He had been the company's chief technology officer since 2017.
Concurrent role
Chief Technology Officer, Bitfinex
Tether's own announcement of his promotion said he would retain the Bitfinex CTO role alongside the Tether chief executive job. Bitfinex is the cryptocurrency exchange affiliated with Tether through common ownership.
Concurrent role
Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Holepunch
Holepunch is an open-source peer-to-peer platform he co-founded in 2022 with the Danish computer scientist Mathias Buus. Its first consumer product was the encrypted communications app Keet.
Born
22 October 1984, Cisano sul Neva, Savona, Italy
Born in Liguria, north-west Italy.
Nationality
Italian
Italian by birth. Reports around Tether's 2025 relocation said he and chief operating officer Claudia Lagorio had also taken Salvadoran citizenship; Tether's own announcement does not address personal citizenship, so that element is not treated as confirmed here.
Based
El Salvador
Tether announced on 13 January 2025 that the group was relocating its headquarters to El Salvador after obtaining a Digital Asset Service Provider licence and a stablecoin issuer licence. The company headquarters move is confirmed by Tether's own announcement; his personal residence is reported rather than documented.
Education
BSc Computer Science, University of Genoa
He stayed on at Genoa as a researcher after graduating, working on cybersecurity and cryptography.
Company
Tether
Issuer of USDT, the largest dollar-denominated stablecoin. Tether's own Q4 2025 attestation release put USDT in circulation above $186bn and total reserve assets at close to $193bn as at 31 December 2025. Those are the company's figures, taken from an attestation rather than an audit.
Predecessor
Jean-Louis van der Velde
Van der Velde moved to an advisory role at Tether on Ardoino's appointment and remained chief executive of Bitfinex.
Prior role
Chief Technology Officer, Tether (2017 to 2023)
He held the Tether CTO role for six years before the chief executive appointment, and Tether credited him with co-leading the strategy that took USDT's market capitalisation to roughly $83bn by October 2023.
Sector
Stablecoins and digital assets
Tether issues USDT, the gold-backed token XAUT, and from 2025 the planned US-regulated token USAT.
Personal Wealth & Holdings
Net worth
c. $38bn (Forbes estimate, 2026)
Forbes's estimate, which derives from a valuation of his Tether shareholding rather than any disclosed figure. Tether is private and does not publish shareholder registers, so all such numbers are third-party estimates.
Stake in Tether
c. 19% (Forbes estimate, February 2026)
Forbes reported in February 2026 that Ardoino and former chief executive Jean-Louis van der Velde were each estimated to hold about 19% of Tether, with Giancarlo Devasini the largest shareholder. Estimated, not disclosed.
Alternative estimate
Tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index
Bloomberg maintains its own profile and derives his stake from a July 2023 Forbes report of a 13% interest in Tether Holdings, adjusted for subsequent dilution. The gap between the Bloomberg and Forbes figures is a reminder that no primary ownership record is public.
Source of wealth
Equity in Tether Holdings
Derived. Tether's own attestation release reported group net profit above $10bn for 2025 and excess reserves of $6.3bn; the wealth estimates above are built on applying a multiple or a transaction valuation to that earnings base. The profit figure is Tether's own, from a BDO attestation rather than an audited financial statement.
Valuation reference point
$500bn valuation sought in 2025 capital raise
Bloomberg reported in September 2025 that Tether was seeking to raise $15bn to $20bn for roughly 3% of the company, implying a valuation near $500bn. Ardoino publicly confirmed a raise was being evaluated. The round's reported terms were later scaled back.
Background
Began programming at the age of eight
Recorded in his public biography. Self-reported detail rather than a documented fact.
Researcher, University of Genoa, to 2011
Worked on cybersecurity and cryptography projects with military applications, including high-availability self-recovering networks.
Developed and calibrated trading algorithms from 2011
His first move from academic research into markets technology.
Founder, Fincluster (2013)
Moved to London in 2013 and founded Fincluster, a cloud financial-software startup serving fund managers and institutions across London, Milan and Lugano.
Joined Bitfinex as a software engineer in 2014
Hired to work on the exchange's trading engine and back-end infrastructure, with a focus on scalability and high availability. Tether's own announcement dates his arrival at Bitfinex to 2014.
Chief Technology Officer, Bitfinex, from 2016
Two years after joining as an engineer. He was CTO of the exchange during the period covered by the later CFTC findings against Bitfinex.
Co-founded Holepunch with Mathias Buus, 2022
A peer-to-peer application platform. Its flagship product, the encrypted messaging app Keet, was built to run without central servers.
Worked with the city of Lugano on crypto payments, March 2022
Tether and Lugano launched an initiative allowing municipal payments including taxes to be settled in bitcoin, USDT and the LVGA token.
Tether's principal public spokesman and defender
He personally fronts the company's responses to adverse reporting. In October 2024 he issued Tether's rebuttal to a Wall Street Journal report of a federal investigation directly, in his own name, rather than through a press office.
Attended the White House signing of the GENIUS Act
The GENIUS Act established the first federal framework for payment stablecoins in the United States. His attendance is recorded in his public biography; treat as reported rather than documented.
Notable Coverage
22 items
Tether reports $1.04bn of Q1 2026 profit and a record $8.23bn reserve buffer
Tether signs a Big Four firm for its first full financial statement audit
Tether's full-year 2025 attestation claims $10bn of profit, $141bn of Treasury exposure and USDT above $186bn
Tether reports more than $10bn of profit for the first three quarters of 2025
Ardoino said the results "reflect the continued trust and strength behind Tether, even amid a global challenging macroeconomic environment, reinforcing Tether's brand as the 'Stable Company.'"
Tether confirms a capital raise reported at a $500bn valuation
Tether unveils USAT, a separate US-regulated stablecoin, and appoints Bo Hines to run it
Ardoino said USDT "is already one of the largest holders of U.S. Treasuries" and that "USAT is our commitment to ensuring that the dollar not only remains dominant in the digital age, but thrives."
Tether reports $4.9bn of net profit and $127bn of Treasury exposure for the first half of 2025
Tether takes a 70% controlling stake in the South American agribusiness Adecoagro
Tether crosses 10% of Juventus Football Club
Tether, Bitfinex and SoftBank launch Twenty One Capital with Cantor Fitzgerald's SPAC
Tether reports quarterly operating profit above $1bn and Treasury exposure approaching $120bn for Q1 2025
Tether moves its headquarters to El Salvador after securing local licences
Ardoino said: "This decision is a natural progression for Tether as it allows us to build a new home, foster collaboration, and strengthen our focus on emerging markets."
Tether reports $13bn of profit for 2024 in its own attestation
Tether invests $775m in the video platform Rumble
Tether discontinues its euro stablecoin rather than operate under MiCA as drafted
Ardoino said: "The decision to discontinue EURT has not been taken lightly. Until a more risk-averse regulatory framework in Europe is in place - one that fosters innovation, offers the stability and protection our users deserve and avoids potential banking systemic risks - we have chosen to prioritize other initiatives."
Wall Street Journal reports a federal investigation into Tether; Ardoino rejects the report
Ardoino said: "There is no indication that Tether is under investigation. WSJ is regurgitating old noise. Full stop." Tether separately called it "wildly irresponsible for WSJ to write articles with reckless allegations with such certainty when no authorities have gone on the record to confirm these rumors, and no sources are named", and said it works directly with law enforcement on misuse of USDT.
Tether works with Dutch and US authorities to freeze €7m tied to illegal exchanges
Ardoino said: "Tether is unwavering in its commitment to support global law enforcement in the fight against the illicit use of cryptocurrencies."
Promoted from chief technology officer to chief executive of Tether
Ardoino said it was "truly an honor to be entrusted with the role of CEO at Tether" and that he was "excited to lead our team as we continue to innovate and provide stability".
Tether partners with the city of Lugano on municipal crypto payments
Co-founds Holepunch and launches the peer-to-peer messaging app Keet
CFTC orders Tether and Bitfinex to pay $42.5m, finding USDT was not fully backed for most of a 26-month sample
Tether and Bitfinex settle with the New York Attorney General for $18.5m over reserve claims and the Crypto Capital losses
The companies resolved the matter without an admission of wrongdoing; CNBC reported at the time that Bitfinex and Tether neither admitted nor denied the attorney general's findings, and Tether has since published quarterly reserve breakdowns.