DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, is preparing to launch a U.S.-based stablecoin as soon as this year, as its CEO ramps up his presence in Washington to shape crypto regulation.

In an interview with CNBC this week, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino revealed that the company is working on plans to issue a new dollar-pegged stablecoin in the U.S. as soon as this year. The move comes as Tether, once accused of being a criminal’s ‘go-to cryptocurrency’ – rebrands itself as a partner to American lawmakers and law enforcement.

“A domestic stablecoin would be different from the international stable coin,” Ardoino told CNBC’s Dan Murphy at the Token2049 conference in Dubai on Wednesday. “It depends on the timeline of the final legislation… but we are looking at that by the end of the year, or early next year at the fastest,” he said.

But the timing and tactics of that next step are raising eyebrows on Capitol Hill.

Ardoino’s recent charm offensive in Washington, which included private meetings with lawmakers, a Capitol Hill lunch with Senator Bill Hagerty and parties with crypto insiders, according to a New York Times report, has put a spotlight on Tether amid the pro-crypto shift under President Trump.

That influence may now be helping shape key legislation, including the GOP-backed GENIUS Act, which critics say includes loopholes that benefit Tether and other foreign issuers – such as provisions allowing operations in the U.S. if they agree to work with law enforcement.

Tether, headquartered in El Salvador, has made legal cooperation key to its lobbying narrative despite a history of regulatory penalties.

“There is no company… even in the traditional financial system, that has such a breadth of collaboration with law enforcement,” Ardoino said. “We are always trying to do better and more to block criminal activity…. we have much better tools than the traditional financial system and we’re proving that everyday.”

Ardoino also addressed concerns about the firm’s ability to back its digital assets. In 2021, Tether settled with the New York attorney general for $18.5 million over allegations it lied about its reserves. It now publishes attestation reports and holds billions in U.S. Treasuries – managed by Wall Street heavyweight Cantor Fitzgerald – and Ardoino insists the business is well capitalised in the event of a market shock.

“We are very close to having $120 billion in U.S. Treasuries in our reserves,” he said. “We have $7 billion in excess equity within the company capital. That is really unprecedented and I wish financial institutions in the traditional financial system would at least try to copy us to provide better products for their consumers.”

Tether’s latest attestation report confirmed the firm holds about $120 billion in U.S. Treasuries. Its first quarter independent auditors’ report confirmed assets and reserves exceed liabilities by almost $5.6 billion, a decrease from more than $7 billion in its December audit. 

Tether’s partnership with Cantor, now run by the sons of U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, has also raised questions. Ardoino told CNBC he doesn’t speak with Secretary Lutnick “because there are proper walls given the potential conflict of interest,” but added “we have great relationships with many people in the U.S. and also now in Washington.” 

Eric Trump and his older brother Donald Trump Jr. recently announced plans to launch a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin through World Liberty Financial, the finance venture backed by President Donald Trump.

Chinese electric vehicle maker Xpeng delivered 35,045 vehicles in April, sustaining its record of delivering more than 30,000 vehicles for the sixth consecutive month.

That represents a 273% year-on-year increase in deliveries. The automaker on April 15 announced the launch of its renewed flagship model, the X9, starting from 359,800 yuan ($49,482).

Its competitor Leapmotor surpassed the 40,000-unit mark and delivered 41,039 vehicles in April, close to its 2024 record of 42,517 vehicles delivered in December 2024.

Nio delivered 19,269 vehicles for its main brand in April, more than the 10,219 delivered in March. One of its sub-brands, Onvo, delivered 4,400 vehicles in April, marking a decline from the 4,820 vehicles delivered the previous month.

The other sub-brand under Nio, Firefly, on April 19 officially launched its namesake model, a compact electric car that starts at 119,800 yuan. The carmaker also announced that deliveries started April 29. Based on CNBC’s calculations of publicly available figures, 231 Firefly cars were delivered in April.

Industry giant BYD sold 372,615 passenger vehicles in April, reflecting a 45.09% year-on-year increase. It had also reported 79,086 vehicles sold overseas in April, topping its record of 72,723 in March.

The EV juggernaut unveiled five new car models at the Shanghai Auto Show, an industry exhibition which ran from April 23 to May 2.

Geely-owned Zeekr‘s April deliveries fell to 13,727 units, down from 15,422 the previous month. Deliveries also fell 14.7% year on year, based on CNBC’s calculations of publicly available numbers.

Li Auto delivered 33,939 vehicles in April, down from the 36,674 vehicles delivered the month prior, but still marking a year-on-year growth of 31.6%.

Xiaomi delivered over 28,000 vehicles in April, below its record of more than 29,000 the previous month. That comes after the crash of an SU7 vehicle in China on April 2 that left three dead

In light of the accident, safety concerns “took centerstage” at the Shanghai Auto Show this year, Nomura analysts said in a note dated April 28.

The note added that companies are “moving towards embracing more Lidars onto their models.” Lidar, short for light detection and ranging, can help construct maps of the environment, which can be used in driver-assistance systems in vehicles.

TikTok has been fined 530 million euros ($601.3 million) by Ireland’s privacy regulator for sending user data to China.

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) — which leads on privacy oversight for TikTok in the EU — said Friday that TikTok infringed the bloc’s GDPR data protection law over transfers of European user data to China.

The regulator ordered TikTok to bring its data processing into compliance within six months and said it would suspend TikTok’s transfers to China if processing is not brought into compliance within that timeframe.

“TikTok’s personal data transfers to China infringed the GDPR because TikTok failed to verify, guarantee and demonstrate that the personal data of EEA users, remotely accessed by staff in China, was afforded a level of protection essentially equivalent to that guaranteed within the EU,” Graham Doyle, deputy commissioner at the DPC, said in a statement Friday.

“As a result of TikTok’s failure to undertake the necessary assessments, TikTok did not address potential access by Chinese authorities to EEA personal data under Chinese anti-terrorism, counter-espionage and other laws identified by TikTok as materially diverging from EU standards,” he added.

The DPC said it also found TikTok had provided inaccurate information to its inquiry when it claimed it hadn’t stored European users’ data on servers located in China. TikTok informed the regulator this month that it discovered an issue in February where limited European user data had been stored on servers in China, contrary to its prior statements.

The DPC takes the issue “very seriously” and is considering what further regulatory action may be warranted in consultation with its fellow EU data protection authorities, Doyle said.

TikTok said it disagrees with the Irish regulator’s decision and plans to appeal in full.

In a blog post Friday, Christine Grahn, TikTok’s head of public policy and government relations for Europe, said the decision failed to take into account Project Clover, a 12-billion-euro data security initiative aimed at protecting European user data.

“It instead focuses on a select period from years ago, prior to Clover’s 2023 implementation and does not reflect the safeguards now in place,” Grahn said.

“The DPC itself recorded in its report what TikTok has consistently said: it has never received a request for European user data from the Chinese authorities, and has never provided European user data to them,” she added.

TikTok has previously acknowledged that staff in China can access user data.

In 2022, it said in an update to its privacy policy that employees in countries where it operates — including China, Brazil, Canada and Israel — are permitted access to users’ data to ensure their experience is “consistent, enjoyable and safe.”

Western policymakers and regulators are concerned TikTok’s transfers of user data could lead to Beijing accessing the data to spy on users with the app. Under Chinese law, tech companies are required to hand over user data to the Chinese government if requested to assist with vaguely-defined “intelligence work.”

For its part, TikTok has insisted that it has never sent user data to the Chinese government. In 2023, TikTok boss Shou Zi Chew said in written testimony for a U.S. Congress hearing that the app “has never shared, or received a request to share, U.S. user data with the Chinese government.”