In two X posts published on March 2 and March 3, respectively, Tether CEO Paolo Ardonio shared his plan for solving the electricity hunger in Africa. What’s his plan, and why does Africa have a special meaning for Tether?
Ardonio’s announcement
On March 2, 2025, Ardonio took to X to tell about his vision of how to tackle the power crisis in Africa. He stated that 600 million Africans don’t have access to electricity and shared his vision of a possible solution.
Ardonio suggested that there is a “plan underway.” He believes a network of kiosks with high-performance batteries and eco-friendly solar panels attached to the top can be a remedy. People will be required to buy a monthly subscription to recharge the batteries using these kiosks. They will be able to pay for it in local currency, Bitcoin, or USDT. Kiosks will provide electricity for the local community.
The network is going to be deployed in at least two phases, with ten thousand charger locations built in the first stage. In the second stage, the number of locations will be brought to 100k.
On top of providing the residents with electric power, the kiosks will provide high-quality educational materials and courses on Bitcoin and saving in Tether. More than that, Ardonio mentions “the biggest distribution network for any goods and services.”
On March 3, Tether CEO added that the described plan “is not an [sic!] hypothetical,” and “few hundred kiosks are up and running.” In the comment section, Ardonio added that after Tether does power generation, it will work on infrastructure.
Reactions
The announcement was met with a full spectrum of reactions–from skeptical to full approval. For instance, Blocksteam CEO Adam Back expressed the willingness to broadcast his company’s educational materials about Bitcoin using these kiosks. Several commenters outlined potential problems of the enterprise or questioned Tether’s role in such an initiative.
One of the commenters, Mutasco, pointed out that the decentralization spirit aligns more with creating a framework where incentives would have driven various independent actors to build such kiosks, not the company itself building the entire network. He added that the Tether Foundation could have probably come up with the framework. “This balances autonomy with centralized support that creates alignment with the ethos of building a community-owned network,” said Mutasco.
Another commenter, who goes by the moniker Crouching Tiger Hidden Whale, questioned if the residents would be able to pay for the subscription. More than that, Crouching Tiger expressed concerns over the safety of Tether’s enterprise, saying that locals could potentially “hijack” the kiosks to use battery rechargers without the paywall. To these concerns, Ardonio noted that several hundred locations are already working and “so far so good.”
The telecom companies reps showed up in the comment section to praise the initiative and promote their services, indicating the importance of connectivity. One of them said that in 2019, he and his partners installed two airnodes in a small remote fishing village in Tanzania, and the move proved to be very effective as now the village has tripled in size, and people feel safer and have more opportunities for selling fish.
Tether in Africa and America
It’s worth saying that Tether has always been vocal about its role in Africa and other regions where people lack banking and tools for saving money in stable currencies. The company’s website directly points to Africa, South, and Central America as the regions where Tether “empowers millions,” saving families “from the spiraling devaluation of their local currencies.”
The USDT use has significantly grown in Africa since 2022. Bloomberg cites Tether’s Head of Economics, Philip Gradwell, who says that the main use cases of Tether in Africa are in saving value and sending money abroad.
https://crypto.news/chainalysis-stablecoins-represent-40-of-crypto-economy-in-sub-saharan-africa
Facilitating financial opportunities in developing countries has an accompanying mission of stretching the American dollar’s influence in these regions. Tether is one of the world’s biggest buyers of U.S. Treasury bills, so the company emphasizes its role in contributing to the elimination of the U.S. debt and galvanizing the American economy as well.
The latter becomes especially relevant today when the company is facing increased scrutiny in the U.S. While the new crypto-friendly SEC consistently keeps on dropping one Gensler-era case by another, Tether finds itself in a much more heated place now than before 2025. The new GENIUS Act aimed to regulate stablecoins demands more transparency from Tether, a company that was never subjected to audits made by the big four audit companies. Some experts believe that Tether won’t be able to adhere to the rules and will have to leave the U.S. market.
The U.S. Treasury is considering sanctioning Tether as it provides services for sanctioned nations like Russia and Iran and the terrorist organization Hamas. Another concern is the involvement of Tether in funding the North Korean nuke program. In October 2024, WSJ reported that federal prosecutors are investigating possible violations of sanctions and anti-money-laundering laws. The January 2024 UN report shows that Tether is one of the preferred cryptocurrencies for crime and money laundering. The report names $17.07 billion as a sum of USDT spent on illegal activities between September 2022 and September 2023, which is not a huge share of the Tether overall volume but a good excuse to intensify the scrutiny and potential prosecution.
In the face of a possible withdrawal from the U.S., increasing its influence in other regions and shifting the focus from the USD-pegged stablecoins to Bitcoin may prove to be an effective recovery plan for Tether.
