Tether is all set to move its headquarters to El Salvador. This is a strange decision, because... ok, let's dive into it.
Strange Headquarter Choice of Tether
Tether's current headquarters is located in the British Virgin Islands. This archipelago is under the jurisdiction of Britain but is in the Caribbean, away from Britain, where it has been safe from the political problems of both America and Britain.
Tether's CEO, Paolo Ardoino, and COO, Claudia Lagorio, became naturalised citizens of El Salvador in 2024. Now Tether has announced that it will move its headquarters to El Salvador. But this announcement seems very strange to me.
Does Tether have have any connection to the Biden-Trump rivalry?
Tether kept the Biden administration happy by freezing USDT in US-sanctioned countries. Then Tether was operating as if it were under US pressure, but now Paolo plans to emigrate to El Salvador, despite the fact that the cryptoverse is overjoyed with Trump's win. This has led me to wonder if Tether did anything against Trump during the Biden administration?
Trump has demonstrated his strong message by referring to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America; perhaps this is why they want to relocate the headquarters before Trump comes to power.
The stablecoin empire aims to expand from Europe to Latin America
Why is Tether moving to El Salvador? After thorough consideration, I've concluded that Tether's purpose in heading to El Salvador is to capitalize on Naib Bukele's popularity in Latin America and become a stablecoin, or alternative to USD, for Bitcoin users there.
Tether's EU empire has lately fallen. People dislikes keeping USDT in their wallets due to Tether's freezing policy, and MiCA has caused centralised exchanges to distance Tether from EU users. Most probably Tether may find the Latin American Bitcoin market to be a favourable choice.
