Moving Stablecoins Across Chains with Lorenzo Romagnoli (Episode 56)

Episode page and notes: https://buildersinfintech.ai/podcast/episode-56

In this episode, I sit down with Lorenzo Romagnoli, co-founder of USDT0.

USDT0 is the interoperability layer for Tether's USDT. A smart contract on Ethereum locks USDT and, through LayerZero, the equivalent USDT0 is minted on the destination chain, so users can move USDT across more than 25 blockchains without third-party bridges or fees. Developed by Everdawn Labs in partnership with Tether, USDT0 launched in January 2025 on Kraken's Ink and has since processed more than $100 billion in cumulative volume. The same team also runs XAUt0, the omnichain version of Tether Gold.

Lorenzo is one of USDT0's three co-founders. He studied economics and finance at Queen Mary University of London, got into DeFi in 2020, and has spent the last years building within the Tether ecosystem. He is based in Lugano.

We talk about why Switzerland attracts so many crypto companies, how USDT0 works and who uses it, a business model where blockchains are the clients, becoming profitable without raising a round, working with Tether, how regulation changed the stablecoin market, whether payments will move to stablecoins, and why stablecoins matter most in emerging markets.

00:00 Intro 00:13 Lorenzo and USDT0 01:25 Why Switzerland and Lugano 03:35 What makes Switzerland work for crypto 04:51 USDT0 vs USDT: an interoperability layer 09:48 How cross-chain transfers work 12:23 Volumes and the most used chains 14:12 Who uses USDT0: funds, exchanges and retail 17:05 Not a custodian: security first 20:58 Business model: blockchains as clients 23:23 Profitable without raising 25:37 The relationship with Tether 30:09 Regulators and the stablecoin shift 34:33 Will payments move to stablecoins? 37:14 Short term vs long term 42:31 Emerging markets and dollar hegemony 46:50 Advice for founders