Tether Co-Founder Hails Tokenization as Greatest Leap Since Fiat
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Written by
Yana Levkovich - Updated 2024-05-13 12:03:47
A Tether executive recently claimed that turning fiat currencies, like the U.S. dollar, into digital tokens is a major innovation. He said this change could impact global finance significantly in the future.
William Quigley, who helped start the cryptocurrency company Tether and the decentralized exchange WAX, thinks that world economies might start using digital, tokenized money within the next decade. He spoke highly of this technology during a discussion at the FT Crypto and Digital Assets Summit on May 9.
Quigley explained that tokenizing fiat currencies could improve them, allowing for possibilities like earning interest on these digital forms of money. He emphasized that this innovation has no downsides, only benefits.
The Tether co-founder stated:
“I wondered why my checking account never paid me interest. And they said, well, you get the wonderful benefits of electronic banking. So, at some point, that might happen. But right now, people are so happy with the tokenization of their dollars that the idea of forgoing interest on them hasn’t been really a compelling issue.”
He also pointed out that trillions of dollars sit in U.S. bank accounts without earning interest. People use these accounts for their banking needs, like ATM access and electronic payments, even though they don't earn anything on their money.
During the same talk, Quigley shared how he got involved with cryptocurrencies and helped establish Tether. Today, Tether is the largest stablecoin by market size and the most frequently traded cryptocurrency.
Quigley credited his early interest in gaming for many of his ideas. In the late 1990s, the trading of in-game items became popular. He and his partner saw a need for a digital payment service because there was no straightforward method to use fiat currency online at that time. This led to their idea of creating a digital escrow service for buying in-game items with cash. Quigley also mentioned that he was one of the first major investors in PayPal.
