Tether's CEO clams IPO rumors after Circle's NYSE debut

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has cooled down talks about the company going public anytime soon. Ardoino took to blogging platform X, saying that the stablecoin issuer has no such plans, days after its rival Circle made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Ardoino mentioned it while he was replying to a post about the company’s valuation. The post came days after Circle, which is behind the USDC stablecoin, entered the public market.

Circle performed well on its first day, with its shares climbing 167% on its first trading session on the NYSE. The company’s shares opened at $31, before moving up by 235% in the first hours of negotiation, before closing at $82 at the end of the day. The performance showed that there is a growing market appetite for the stablecoin business.

Tether CEO discusses Tether’s valuation

Ardoino also addressed the speculation raised by Artemis CEO Jon Ma, who was speaking about Tether’s valuation. Ma mentioned that if Tether, who backs the USDT stablecoin were to go public, it would rank as the 19th largest company globally.

He backed his claim with a table showing different companies and their current valuation. The table had companies like Microsoft, Nvidia, Apple, and Amazon, among others.

Tether valuation at 515B is a beautiful number.
Maybe a bit bearish considering our current (and increasing) Bitcoin + Gold treasury, yet I'm very humbled.
Also truly excited for the next phase of growth of our company.

Thank you everyone❤️ https://t.co/exZc05SDwd

— Paolo Ardoino 🤖 (@paoloardoino) June 7, 2025

In his postulation, he noted that Tether, with a valuation of around $515 billion, will be larger than global giants like Costco and Coca-Cola.

However, Ardoino was not impressed with the valuation. The Tether CEO noted that while the $515 billion valuation was a beautiful number, it might actually be too low for the company. “Maybe a bit bearish considering our current (and increasing) Bitcoin + gold treasury, yet I’m very humbled,” Ardoino said.

Ardoino added that he is excited for the next stage of Tether’s growth. Meanwhile, popular Bitcoin advocate Anthony Pompliano also backed Ardoino’s stance, highlighting that the company has what it takes to hit the $1 trillion mark eventually.

The stance was also shared by another prominent figure in the community, Jack Mallers, who mentioned that he hopes the company eventually reaches the valuation very soon.

New inroads and investments

Tether-backed stablecoin USDT currently ranks as the third-largest in the cryptocurrency market by market cap. It is valued at $154.83 billion at the time of writing, according to CoinMarketCap. The company has also been making investments in the crypto market, announcing in April that it would become a majority owner of Twenty One Capital, a new Bitcoin treasury company founded by Strike executive Jack Mallers.

Despite its recent launch, Twenty One has become the third-largest holder of Bitcoin, coming behind Strategy (MicroStrategy) and mining firm MARA Holdings. Some days ago, Tether moved 37,229 Bitcoin, worth about $3.9 billion into the Bitcoin native financial platform. According to his post on X, he made three transactions totaling 25,812 BTC worth about $2.7 billion at the time before making a $730 million transfer and following it up with a $500 million BTC transfer.

Twenty One Capital wants to develop Bitcoin-native capital markets infrastructure, allowing products like lending, custody, and asset issuance to operate directly on Bitcoin rails. It also has plans to go public using a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) merger that would involve Cantor Fitzgerald’s Cantor Equity Partners, which values the company at $3.6 billion.

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