If you read the news, you might have noticed a trend this past week. In addition to splashy features in Fortune and Bloomberg, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino talked with Reuters, He also talked with TechCrunch. Why did the man behind the stablecoin that everyone loves to hate launch a full-scale media blitz?

The timing isn’t arbitrary. This week, Tether launched USAT, a U.S.-regulated stablecoin issued through Anchorage Digital Bank — its first product designed to comply with new federal rules and compete directly with Circle’s USDC. Fidelity Investments also just launched a competing stablecoin on Wednesday, joining JPMorgan Chase and PayPal in a broadening race.

It’s a big shift from one extreme to the other. For years, Ardoino avoided the United States, watching from offshore as regulators circled and prosecutors investigated. His company was portrayed as opaque, possibly fraudulent, and, according to a piece by The Economist last summer, a “money launderer’s dream.”

But when Ardoino and I chatted by video call this week, it was clear those days are over. Tether is meeting with White House officials, collaborating with the FBI and Secret Service, and betting USAT can break Circle’s grip on the U.S. market. (USAT is separate from Tether’s flagship USDT, which has $187 billion in circulation globally but doesn’t meet new U.S. regulatory requirements.) Speaking from Lugano, Switzerland, where Tether maintains an office, the 41-year-old – who joined the company just two months after its 2014 launch – spent over an hour describing Tether’s transformation from a crypto play to mainstream acceptance.

...read more at techcrunch.com