Tether is preparing to launch a dollar stablecoin aimed at the United States market and has named a former adviser to President Trump as its chief executive, according to reports from multiple outlets early Saturday. The token, called USAT, would mark the company’s most direct attempt yet to sell a regulated stablecoin inside a market its flagship product has never officially served.
The plan follows the GENIUS Act, the federal stablecoin law signed in July 2025 that created a licensing framework for dollar tokens issued in the United States. USDT, Tether’s flagship product, remains unavailable to American customers, which has left the company watching from the sidelines while Circle’s USDC dominates domestic settlement volume. A compliant US token would let Tether compete for the payments and treasury business it has been locked out of, without touching the offshore product that generates most of its revenue.
A political hire for a political market
Early reports gave few details on the incoming chief executive beyond the former White House adviser credential. The appointment signals that Tether intends to work with US regulators rather than around them, a notable reversal after years in which the company’s offshore structure kept it at arm’s length from Washington and from the New York attorney general, which settled fraud charges with the firm in 2021 over misstatements about its reserves.
The political dimension runs deeper than one hire. Tether’s reserves are custodied by Cantor Fitzgerald, the firm led for years by Howard Lutnick before he became Commerce Secretary. Democratic lawmakers have repeatedly pressed for hearings on the arrangement, and the company’s growing footprint in US Treasury bills has drawn attention from both advocates of dollar dominance and critics of its opacity. Hiring someone with direct experience inside the administration is the clearest sign yet that Tether sees its future in Washington’s good graces, not in spite of them.
Scale and stakes
Tether is the largest stablecoin issuer in the world. USDT circulates well above $180 billion and generates quarterly profits measured in the billions, mostly from interest on a reserve portfolio heavy in short-term US Treasuries. The broader stablecoin market stood near $293 billion in total capitalization on Saturday, with roughly $91 billion in daily transfer volume, according to market trackers.
That scale makes the American market hard to ignore. Circle, which went public in 2025, has used its head start on US compliance to sign banking and payments partnerships that Tether cannot touch. Bank consortia and fintech firms are also preparing regulated dollar tokens under the new law, meaning the window for a compliant entrant is closing as incumbents lock up distribution agreements with banks, payment processors and retail platforms.
What the GENIUS Act requires
The law that makes USAT possible sets a high bar. Issuers must hold reserves in liquid, high-quality assets, publish monthly disclosures on the composition of those reserves, and maintain redemption rights that let holders convert tokens to dollars at par on demand. Non-bank issuers can register through the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency or through qualifying state regimes, while foreign issuers need a US-chartered subsidiary to sell tokens domestically.
That last point is the structural crux for Tether. The company has never published a full audit by a major accounting firm, relying instead on quarterly attestations from a smaller firm, and US regulators will likely expect more for a domestic charter. Whether USAT is issued through a wholly owned US subsidiary, what reserves back it, and who regulates it day to day were not spelled out in the early reports, and the company declined to answer questions from reporters before publication.
Two tokens, two markets
The likely structure splits Tether’s business in two. USDT stays offshore and keeps serving emerging markets, where it remains the default settlement asset for remittances, savings and dollar access in economies with unstable currencies. USAT would be the regulated onshore product, marketed to American businesses for payments, payroll and treasury management.
For users, a regulated USAT would offer a Tether-issued alternative to USDC with the liquidity advantages of the largest issuer behind it. Merchants and platforms that already settle in USDT internationally could bridge to a compliant token from the same company, avoiding the fragmentation that comes from mixing issuers across a payment flow. Whether corporate treasurers, auditors and bank partners accept a Tether-branded token will depend on the disclosure regime the company adopts, not on the brand itself.
A test for the new law
A launch would also test the GENIUS Act itself. The statute’s reserve, redemption and disclosure requirements are now being turned into implementing rules, and the first large offshore issuer to convert will set the template regulators apply to the rest. How the Treasury Department and the OCC treat Tether’s attestation history, its ownership structure and its custody arrangements will tell the industry how much regulatory continuity an offshore issuer can carry across the line.
The move lands at a moment when stablecoins have become a Washington priority rather than a niche crypto product. Treasury yields near multi-decade highs have raised the stakes for issuers earning interest on reserve assets, and Congress has begun examining whether the interest income flowing to private issuers should be shared with holders or regulated more tightly. Any USAT launch would feed directly into that debate, since the new token’s reserve policy would become a live example of how the law works in practice.
Competitors are watching closely. Circle has spent the past year building distribution partnerships with banks and payment networks, and its shares have traded on stablecoin adoption headlines since its listing. A Tether entry with political backing could compress the margins that made Circle’s business model attractive to public market investors, or it could expand the total market fast enough that both issuers grow.
No launch date for USAT was given in the initial reports, and the identity and background of the incoming chief executive were not fully confirmed by the time of publication.