Tether Drops Open-Source AI Bombshell—With Built-In Crypto Payments

Tether just blindsided the tech world with an open-source AI project that bakes USDT and Bitcoin payments directly into its codebase. No more clunky payment gateways—just machine learning that pays its own AWS bills in crypto.

The move signals a ruthless pivot from stablecoins to AI infrastructure, leveraging Tether’s liquidity moat to undercut legacy players. Because nothing disrupts like an 83-billion-dollar stablecoin printer funding your competition.

Wall Street analysts are already calling it ’the ultimate hedge fund play’—a way to monetize AI hype while keeping everything denominated in freshly minted USDT. The project’s whitepaper conspicuously avoids mentioning how many GPU clusters $1 can rent when pegged to commercial paper.

Tether Enters AI Race with Decentralized, Crypto-Powered Platform

The project, teased by Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino on May 5 via X, will integrate direct payments in USDT and Bitcoin. Tether AI is described as a modular and composable AI runtime, built to operate on any hardware or device.

https://t.co/qQkox6AfNg coming soon pic.twitter.com/1FZonsW5nq

According to Ardoino, the system won’t rely on centralized servers or require API keys, setting it apart from traditional cloud-based AI services. Instead, it’s designed to run on a distributed network with no single point of failure.

At the platform’s CORE is what Tether calls “Personal Infinite Intelligence,” a concept that hints at individualized AI agents adaptable to user needs and hardware constraints. This decentralized model aims to offer developers and users more autonomy, privacy, and security.

The platform will support native crypto payments, with USDT and Bitcoin transactions processed directly on the peer-to-peer network. Ardoino confirmed that the AI platform will be “infused” with crypto-native tools, including Tether’s open-source wallet development kit (WDK).

WDK was released in November 2024, which allows developers to build mobile, desktop, and web wallets for self-custodial asset management.

Tether emphasized that users will retain full control over their funds, without relying on centralized intermediaries. This aligns with the broader goal of offering AI tools that are both open and sovereign, powered by crypto infrastructure.

Ardoino said, “The AI industry today is heavily reliant on centralized APIs and cloud platforms.”

He added, “Tether.ai will change that by offering a fully open-source AI runtime that works anywhere and doesn’t require any centralized access.”

Though Tether.ai is not yet live, visiting the domain currently redirects users to Tether Data. This suggests that the project may integrate with Tether’s existing peer-to-peer technologies, such as Keet, a decentralized chat application, and Pear, a framework for building P2P apps.

The platform was first introduced in December 2024, with a target launch by the end of Q1 2025. While it has yet to go live, the latest update indicates that development is well underway, positioning Tether to enter the emerging space of decentralized AI with built-in crypto capabilities.

Tether AI Pushes Forward Amid Restructuring and $1B Quarterly Profit

Tether’s open-source AI initiative is the latest step in a broader pivot to artificial intelligence, part of a corporate restructuring announced in April 2024.

That move created new business units focused on AI tools and peer-to-peer technology development, including Tether Data.

CEO Paolo Ardoino has steadily teased the company’s ambitions in AI, revealing in February that Tether’s AI division was developing a suite of applications, including a translation tool, a voice assistant, and a Bitcoin wallet assistant. All of which will be powered by in-house models.

Tether Data, preview of some of the AI apps we’re developing: AI translate, AI voice assistant, AI bitcoin wallet assistant.

Tether will launch soon its own AI SDK platform, open-source, built upon Bare (Holepunch’s javascript runtime), working on every hardware, from embedded… pic.twitter.com/W5JFmoVcnh

Ardoino wrote on X, saying “ideal technological foundation” for a future envisioned by sci-fi legend Isaac Asimov. AI will, in the coming decades, become part of the very fabric of the universe.”

The expansion comes as Tether reported a $1 billion operating profit in Q1 2025, driven by strong returns on its U.S. Treasury holdings.

With $149.3 billion in total assets and $5.6 billion in excess reserves, Tether continues to lead in the stablecoin space and now AI infrastructure.