Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino on Bitcoin’s Future. Why USDt Could Move to RGB Protocol on Bitcoin
Tether USDt on RGB Protocol on Bitcoin — Paolo Ardoino’s Vision
Tether USDt on RGB Protocol on Bitcoin became one of the most anticipated developments in Bitcoin-native finance after a statement by Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino in February 2025. Speaking about the long-term trajectory of stablecoins, Ardoino suggested that USDt itself could one day become obsolete — not because stablecoins fail, but because Bitcoin’s monetary properties could make dollar-pegged instruments unnecessary for many use cases.
Why RGB Protocol on Bitcoin?
At the time of the interview, Tether was already evaluating how to bring USDt natively to Bitcoin through RGB Protocol on Bitcoin — a layer for asset issuance that uses client-side validation to keep all asset data off-chain. This design means asset transfers remain private by default and do not add any burden to the Bitcoin blockchain
Unlike bridges, wrapped tokens, or sidechains, RGB Protocol on Bitcoin inherits Bitcoin’s security model directly: no custodians, no alternative consensus mechanisms, and full compatibility with the Lightning Network for fast, low-cost transfers.
Ardoino’s remarks, read against that backdrop, reveal a company thinking in decades rather than quarters. The vision: Bitcoin’s base layer, extended by RGB Protocol on Bitcoin’s infrastructure, as the long-term foundation for digital value transfer — a system where Bitcoin’s monetary properties and the utility of stablecoins converge in a single, native stack.
The August 2025 announcement
Six months after Ardoino’s statement, Tether formally announced its plan to bring USDt to RGB Protocol on Bitcoin v0.11.1 — the first production-ready release of the protocol, live on mainnet with an active ecosystem of wallets and infrastructure already integrated.
The announcement confirmed Tether as a founding member of the RGB Protocol Association, alongside Bitfinex, Fulgur Ventures, and other ecosystem builders — and positioned RGB Protocol on Bitcoin as the infrastructure layer for the next generation of Bitcoin-native finance.
