Tether Capitalizes on GENIUS Act to Issue Dollar-Backed Stablecoin

Tether plans to launch a U.S.-regulated dollar-backed stablecoin and appointed the former executive director of the White House Crypto Council, Bo Hines, to lead the effort.

The new stablecoin will be called USAT; will be designed to comply with the recently enacted U.S. stablecoin law, the GENIUS Act; and will provide businesses and institutions with a digital alternative to cash and traditional payment rails, the company said in a Friday (Sept. 12) press release.

USAT will use the real-world-assets tokenization platform Hadron by Tether; will be issued by federally regulated crypto bank Anchorage Digital, and will have as its designated reserve custodian and preferred primary dealer Cantor Fitzgerald, according to the release.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said in the release that Tether has been issuing another stablecoin, USDT, for over a decade and that the token is used by hundreds of millions of people in emerging markets.

“Today, with the introduction of USAT and Bo Hines’ appointment as future CEO of Tether USAT, we are taking the next natural step, bringing that same strength to the U.S. under a world-leading U.S.-regulatory framework,” Ardoino said.

Ardoino said in the release USAT will support the strength of the dollar by enabling products that are “more transparent, more resilient, more accessible and more unstoppable than ever before.”

Tether USAT’s CEO-designate, Hines, is an entrepreneur as well as the former executive director of the White House Crypto Council. In the release, Tether highlighted Hines’s legal, business and policy expertise and his experience in governance, law and financial innovation.

Hines said in the release that USAT will be designed to “strengthen America’s role in the global economy.”

“By building USAT with compliance, transparency and innovation at its core, we are ensuring that the dollar remains the foundation of trust in the digital asset space,” Hines said in the release.

Tether named Hines to an advisory role, strategic advisor for digital assets and U.S. strategy, in August, saying he would work with the company’s leadership to help plan and execute its entry into the U.S. market.

Hines left his role at the White House earlier in August.

Tether’s USDT stablecoin is the most traded cryptocurrency by volume around the world.

An El Salvador-based company, Tether was banned from operating in New York and paid nearly $60 million to the state and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 2021 to settle their allegations that the company made false and misleading claims.

Ardoino said in May that the company planned to continue to focus on markets outside the U.S. even as it works to become compliant with U.S. regulation of stablecoins.