Key Notes
- Former White House Crypto Council Executive Director Bo Hines will lead the new US-regulated stablecoin initiative.
- USAT will be fully dollar-backed and issued through Anchorage Digital with Cantor Fitzgerald as reserve custodian.
- Tether's existing USDT dominates the market with nearly 500 million users and $169.5 billion market capitalization.
Tether unveils a new stablecoin called “USAT” that will be “purpose-built to serve the U.S. market and support American regulatory standards” under the leadership of Bo Hines, the former Executive Director of the White House Crypto Council.
Hines joined the firm as an advisor in mid-August. He’ll now lead the USAT project as CEO of Tether USAT, according to a Sept. 12 press release . Hines, in a public statement, said the company had begun development on the new stablecoin and that it was focused on “creating a U.S.-regulated dollar-backed stablecoin designed to strengthen America’s role in the global economy.”
The firm didn’t give an expected launch date for USAT, but it did say the new stablecoin would be “GENIUS Act compliant” and that it would leverage the company’s own Hadron real-world-assets tokenization platform. It will also be fully backed by the US dollar. USAT will be issued by the Anchorage Digital bank and Cantor Fitzgerald will serve as the stablecoin’s designated reserve custodian and preferred primary dealer.
USDT Dominates Market with 500 Million Users
According to the press release, Tether’s USDT stablecoin now reaches nearly 500 million users. Data from CoinMarketCap indicates USDT has a market cap of approximately $169.5 billion. It is by far the largest stablecoin by cap, with Circle as its closest competitor with a market cap of $72.3 billion as of the time of this article’s publication.
The official USAT account on X.com was created in 2023, indicating that the firm has had the new stablecoin, or a project with a similar name, in its sights for at least a couple of years. Its first posts weren’t until Sept. 12, 2025, however.
As of yet, no time frame has been given for USAT’s official launch date or whether there will be geo-restrictions governing its availability once released.
