Tether Launches USAT, a U.S.-Regulated Stablecoin Issued by Anchorage Digital
Tether, the company behind the world’s largest stablecoin, has opened a second front in the United States. On Tuesday, January 27, it launched USAT, a dollar-backed token issued by federally chartered Anchorage Digital Bank and built to operate under the GENIUS Act, the federal stablecoin law signed last July.
The launch puts Tether in direct competition with Circle’s USDC for the business of American institutions, a market where USDT, Tether’s flagship token, has long been held back by its offshore structure and questions about its reserves.
How USAT is structured
Unlike USDT, which Tether issues from outside the U.S., USAT (styled USA₮ by the company) is issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A. Because Anchorage holds a national bank charter, the token falls under the supervision of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, as CoinDesk reported.
Cantor Fitzgerald is the designated custodian for USAT’s reserves and serves as its preferred primary dealer, according to the company’s announcement. Tether described the arrangement as offering “clear visibility into reserves from day one.”
At launch, USAT is available through Bybit, Crypto.com, Kraken, OKX and the payments firm MoonPay. Cointelegraph reported that the token went live as an ERC-20 asset on Ethereum with an initial supply of $10 million, citing CoinMarketCap data. Cointelegraph also noted that USAT had not yet appeared on Tether’s transparency page at the time of its report.
USDT will continue to operate globally as a separate product. Tether has framed USAT as purpose-built for the U.S. market rather than a replacement for its existing token.
The people behind it
The token is led by Bo Hines, the former executive director of the White House’s crypto council, who was named chief executive of Tether USAT when the company first unveiled the project in September 2025. The U.S. business is based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“USA₮ offers institutions an additional option: a dollar-backed token made in America,” Tether chief executive Paolo Ardoino said in the launch announcement, a reprint of which was published by The Asian Banker.
“With the launch of USAt, we see a digital dollar that is designed to meet federal regulatory expectations,” Hines said, according to Cointelegraph. In the company’s announcement, he also said the company’s focus is “stability, transparency, and responsible governance.”
According to CoinDesk, Tether plans to use its large quarterly profits to grow the new token and has set an ambitious target of a $1 trillion market capitalization within five years.
A direct challenge to Circle
The competitive target is clear. USDC, issued by Circle, has been the preferred stablecoin for many U.S. banks, payment companies and asset managers, largely because of its domestic regulatory footing and regular reserve disclosures. CoinDesk described USAT as aimed squarely at that same customer base.
Tether starts with some advantages. USDT is the largest stablecoin by market value, Tether is one of the most profitable companies in the industry, and its existing exchange relationships gave USAT distribution on several major platforms from its first day. The company has also pointed out that Tether Group ranks among the largest holders of U.S. Treasury bills in the world.
It also starts with challenges. USAT launched with a tiny supply compared with the tens of billions of dollars in USDC in circulation, and much of USDC’s U.S. adoption comes from long-standing integrations with payment processors, brokerages and DeFi protocols. Winning those integrations will take time, and Circle is not standing still.
Why it matters
USAT is the most prominent test so far of how the GENIUS Act is reshaping the stablecoin market. The law created the first federal framework for payment stablecoins, requiring full reserve backing and supervision of issuers, and it gave offshore issuers a strong reason to set up regulated U.S. structures if they want access to American institutions.
Tether has chosen to answer that by building a separate, bank-issued product rather than bringing USDT itself under U.S. rules for now. That two-token approach could become a template for other global issuers that want to serve both international users and regulated U.S. customers.
The launch also lands while Washington is still arguing about stablecoins. Earlier this month, the Senate Banking Committee postponed its markup of a broader crypto market structure bill amid a dispute over whether platforms can pay rewards to stablecoin holders. How that question is resolved could affect how USAT, USDC and other dollar tokens compete for users in the U.S.
For the wider crypto market, a regulated Tether product adds another source of dollar liquidity on U.S. venues and gives exchanges and institutions a second option alongside USDC. Whether it gains real traction will show up over the coming months in its circulating supply and in which platforms choose to integrate it.