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Ardoino shot down the JPMorgan report that suggested his firm may be forced to liquidate bitcoin to comply with upcoming stablecoin regulation.
Tether’s Paolo Ardoino Addresses JPMorgan’s Warning on Stablecoin Regulation
JPMorgan (JPM) published a report on Wednesday warning stablecoin giant Tether, that it could be forced to liquidate some of its bitcoin (BTC) holdings in order to comply with upcoming legislation, but Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino scoffed at the bank’s comments on Thursday.
Tether, which dominates roughly 62% of the $230 billion stablecoin market with its flagship token USDT, recently posted a massive $13 billion profit for its 2024 fiscal year and currently owns around 84,000 BTC in one of its main addresses.
But reporting from The Block shows that JPM conducted an analysis of Tether to determine if it was prepared for the possible enactment of stablecoin bills in the House and Senate titled ‘‘Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy (STABLE) Act” and the ‘‘Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act,” respectively.
JPM analysts estimate that under the House’s STABLE Act, 66% of the stablecoin issuer’s $144 billion in reserve assets would be complaint, while 83% would be compliant under the Senate’s GENIUS Act. The analysts reckon Tether would be forced to replace some of its BTC with traditional assets such as U.S. Treasury bills, but Ardoino isn’t buying it.
“JPM analysts are salty because they don’t own bitcoin,” Ardoino posted on X. “Tether analysts say that JPM does not have enough bitcoin,” he added, likely referencing a 2017 quip by JPM CEO Jamie Dimon who called bitcoin “a fraud” and said he wouldn’t let his employees trade the cryptocurrency.
“I would fire them in a second, for two reasons: It is against our rules and they are stupid, and both are dangerous,” Dimon said. He has since walked back his statements but remains personally uninterested in bitcoin.
Per The Block, Ardoino pointed out that JPM did not factor in Tether’s $20 billion in group equity that generates over $1.2 billion in quarterly profits. Regarding compliance with the STABLE and GENIUS Acts, he reportedly said it “will be straightforward.”