Issues USDT, one of the largest US dollar-pegged stablecoins used across cryptocurrency markets globally.tether.to ↗
3 takes · first discussed Nov 22, 2025
Private company — no public price to score. We track what they said; valuation-mark tracking is on the roadmap.
Chamath is highly bullish on Tether, calling it an incredible business with 500 million users, 30 million user growth per quarter, ~95%+ profit margins, and $135B in Treasury holdings generating ~$10B/year in earnings.
Jason acknowledges Tether has cleaned up its historical compliance issues and is now pursuing US regulatory approval, but flags that falling interest rates are a material headwind to the business model.
Friedberg notes that Tether's extremely high margins will attract competition and compress over time, especially as interest rates fall.
The hosts are broadly impressed by Tether's scale and profitability but diverge on its durability. Chamath is highly bullish, highlighting 500 million users, 30 million user additions per quarter, ~95%+ margins, and roughly $10B/year in earnings from $135B in Treasury holdings, framing it as a driver of both financial inclusion and US dollar hegemony. Jason takes a mixed view, crediting Tether for resolving past compliance concerns and moving toward formal audits, while warning that falling interest rates represent a meaningful structural headwind to the business model. Friedberg is the most skeptical, arguing that margins this high will inevitably attract competition and compress — a concern compounded by the same rate-decline dynamic Jason raises — leaving little disagreement among the three that the current margin profile is unsustainable in the long run.
Chamath is highly bullish on Tether, calling it an incredible business with 500 million users, 30 million user growth per quarter, ~95%+ profit margins, and $135B in Treasury holdings generating ~$10B/year in earnings.
There are 500 million people using US dollar-backed stablecoins from Tether all around the world, all over Africa, all over Central America, all over Asia, number 1. Number 2, his user base is growing by 30 million users a quarter. It's the”15:08
Jason acknowledges Tether has cleaned up its historical compliance issues and is now pursuing US regulatory approval, but flags that falling interest rates are a material headwind to the business model.
They've done an incredible job cleaning all that up. Now they are starting to do, going from attestations to audits… The other challenge they're going to have is when interest rates go down, these businesses are going to have to figure”19:23
Friedberg notes that Tether's extremely high margins will attract competition and compress over time, especially as interest rates fall.
The good news about that is— There's a financial theory, though, that high-margin businesses like that invite competition more… Unfortunately, margin like that's only got one direction to go.”22:49