Tether Coming to America: Reveals 'US-Regulated' USAT Stablecoin, With Its Own CEO

By Sander Lutz

Stablecoin giant Tether furthered its push into the United States on Friday, announcing a previously teased U.S.-specific stablecoin designed to comply with new laws. 

The token project, dubbed USAT, will be led by Bo Hines, former executive director of the White House’s digital assets working group. Hines will serve as USAT's CEO from Charlotte, North Carolina, where he and his family are based. Hines left the Trump administration last month, and immediately signed on as Tether’s strategic advisor for U.S. policy.

The token will be issued by Anchorage Digital and is expected to launch by the end of this year. USAT will be headquartered in Charlotte, Hines confirmed to Decrypt, with an office that will likely feature a “lean” team.

Anchorage Digital will be a shareholder in the  new U.S. company operating USAT, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said.

Ardoino previously told Decrypt at the White House in July that the company intended to create a U.S.-specific stablecoin, which will cater to different use cases than USDT, the company’s flagship stablecoin.

"We have built the most popular distribution channel for the United States, but also for the United States to reach the world," Ardoino said Friday. "With USAT and USDT together... we can [bring financial services] to the rest of the world and also the underserved communities in the United States."

For years, Tether has avoided a major U.S. presence. Its $170 billion stablecoin USDT token has not yet had its reserves audited by a Big Four firm, and the token has also faced criticism in the past for its use in criminal activity. Tether, handily the largest stablecoin issuer in the world, is currently headquartered in El Salvador. 

In the wake of Donald Trump’s re-election last year, though, the company has aggressively pushed to establish itself stateside and openly compete with rival firms pitching themselves as more regulatory-compliant Tether alternatives.

The company is intimately connected with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a major Tether booster. Lutnick’s Wall Street firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, says it custodies billions of dollars worth of U.S. Treasuries backing USDT.

Following the passage of the GENIUS Act in July—which for the first time established a legal framework for issuing and trading stablecoins in the United States—Tether CEO Ardoino told Decrypt the company intends to make USDT compliant with the new law, and thus accessible in the U.S. market. 

Compliance would involve obeying stringent U.S. anti-money laundering laws and undergoing intricate audits. Ardoino said he fully intends to have USDT meet those standards.

On Friday, Ardoino doubled down on Tether’s commitment to get USDT greenlit in the United States via the GENIUS Act’s pathway for foreign issuers.

When asked by Decrypt what the difference in appeal will be between USAT and USDT, if both tokens are eventually made available in U.S. markets, Ardoino said Friday that USAT will be designed as an “America-first” product branded to speak to the needs of U.S. users. USDT, which is established in the global market, will serve as “the distribution channel for USAT abroad,” he added. 

Ardoino specifically pushed back on the prospect, however, of USAT or its partners offering yield to holders, similar to rival stablecoin issuer Circle’s lucrative arrangement with Coinbase. 

“We'll see,” Ardoino said of such plans, “But I'm not a huge fan of that part of the stablecoin business, because I think it will make stablecoins less sustainable.”

He elaborated that Tether uses the yield it generates on its massive U.S. Treasury reserves to invest in the company’s distribution channels, which he said are unparalleled and key to Tether’s dominance.

“Sharing the yield is done by our competitors because they don't own the distribution network,” he said, “but we own the distribution network, and we still believe we can bring the same utility and same returns to users through different means that are more established [and] crypto-native.”

The company announced the news today at a spy museum in midtown Manhattan. The event, decked out with patriotic Tether paraphernalia and American flags, was attended by prominent D.C. movers and shakers including Hines’ White House successor Patrick Witt, chair of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Digital Assets Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI), former GOP Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, and numerous prominent industry lobbyists.

On Friday, Ardoino also teased Tether’s other endeavors, including expanding its Bitcoin mining capabilities.

“Tether is going to become the biggest Bitcoin miner in the world by the end of this year,” he said.

Editor's note: This story was updated after publication to add comments from Ardoino and Hines along with further details.

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