Tether is going beyond its role as a background stablecoin issuer and is now targeting the end user directly.
On December 20, Paolo Ardoino, the CEO of the company, revealed that he was hiring a Lead Software Engineer to create a self-custodied mobile wallet that integrates the company's enormous liquidity with its new artificial intelligence division.
The mobile cryptocurrency wallet planned by Tether
The job offer provides the most concrete vision so far of Tether's strategy towards consumers. Ardoino envisions a mobile application that is '100% self-custody' designed as a fortress for a strict group of assets.
Unlike general wallets that support thousands of speculative tokens, Tether's product will only support four assets. These include Bitcoin (BTC) through the Lightning Network, Tether (USDT), XAUT linked to gold, and USAT, the company's new regulated stablecoin in the United States.
This restricted list of assets shows a clear strategic intent. Tether is building a payment pathway of “hard money,” ignoring the broad casino of decentralized finance (DeFi) and prioritizing pure payments and assets as a store of value.
Meanwhile, the announcement confirms that the wallet will operate with two proprietary technologies, including the Wallet Development Kit (WDK) and QVAC.
While WDK handles the non-custodial financial architecture, the integration of QVAC (Tether's local artificial intelligence platform) is the main differentiating factor.
Private integration of local AI
Ardoino detailed a vision in which the wallet will feature “private integration of local AI,” allowing users to perform advanced and automated tasks directly on their devices.
By processing data locally with QVAC, instead of sending it to the cloud, Tether aims to offer the functionality of an AI-powered financial assistant.
This approach is designed to avoid the privacy sacrifices typically associated with large tech platforms.
Additionally, this initiative highlights Tether's shift from being an infrastructure provider to becoming a consumer-focused technology company. It is based on the launch last week of PearPass, a password manager among users created to eliminate reliance on cloud storage.
In fact, these product lines demonstrate that the company is aggressively verticalizing its stack. Tether would have control over the wallet interface, over the USDT and USAT stablecoins, over the security layer through PearPass, and over intelligence through QVAC.
This structure reduces dependence on third-party platforms and strengthens the company's operational autonomy.
