Photo credit: Paolo Ardoino/X

Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin, USDT, is planning to double its staff by mid-2025 to bolster its departments, including compliance and finance, Bloomberg reported on Aug. 8.

The firm aims to increase its workforce to about 200 people over the next year, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino told Bloomberg in an interview, explaining that the company focuses on hiring senior employees.

“We are very proud of the fact that we are very lean and we want to remain lean because we want to be flexible,” Ardoino reportedly said. “We are very careful when we hire people, we hire only senior people.”

USDT transactions in primary, secondary markets

While the primary market, where investors interact directly with USDT, is relatively straightforward to monitor, Ardoino emphasized that the secondary market — encompassing exchanges and over-the-counter (OTC) desks — presents a unique challenge.

According to Ardoino, monitoring for potentially illicit activity on the secondary market requires more sophisticated, automated tools than those used for the primary market.

His comments come as controversy over the illicit use of USDT surrounds Tether, with authorities already grappling to prevent such illegal activities. In a January report, the United Nations alleged that digital assets, including USDT, have become a tool for criminals in East Asia. Tether has since challenged the report, calling for a collaborative dialogue and touted its joint efforts with “global law enforcement including the DOJ, FBI, and the United States Secret Service (USSS).”

In May, Tether linked with blockchain analytics platform Chainalysis to develop a solution for monitoring secondary market activity.

Tether record $5B in net profits

Amid the scrutiny, Tether’s financial performance remains robust. Last week, it reportedly netted $5.2 billion in profits in the year’s first half.

According to the company’s latest attestation, it generated $1.3 billion of net operating profits in the second quarter alone. A portion of these profits was reinvested in “strategic projects.”

On March 4, USDT crossed an all-time high market capitalization of $100 billion. The value is over $81 billion ahead compared to its closest stablecoin competitor, USD Coin (USDC), issued by Circle, per CoinGecko data as of Aug. 9.

Read more: Stablecoin issuer Paxos lays off 20% of staff: Report