Tether's USAT goes live on Celo, its first network beyond Ethereum
The federally regulated dollar token Tether launched in January now mints and burns natively on the payments network, where it can also pay for gas.
Network
Celo
Celo is a payments-focused Ethereum layer 2 built on the OP Stack, designed around mobile use and stablecoin settlement, on which transaction fees can be paid in dollar-denominated tokens rather than the native CELO asset, and which hosts Tether's USAT alongside USDT and USDC.
The profile
Celo began in 2018 as a mobile-first payments network developed by cLabs, with the Celo Foundation funding ecosystem work and governance, and ran as a standalone proof-of-stake layer 1 from its mainnet launch in April 2020. Its distinguishing design choices were the mapping of phone numbers to onchain accounts, later formalised as the SocialConnect protocol, and native stablecoins minted through the Mento protocol against a reserve of crypto assets: cUSD, cEUR and cREAL, since renamed USDm, EURm and BRLm under a Mento governance proposal. On 26 March 2025 the chain migrated to an Ethereum layer 2 built on Optimism's OP Stack, replacing its own consensus with a sequencer while validators moved to running community RPC nodes, with blocks produced at about one second. CELO remains the native and governance token, but the fee abstraction mechanism lets whitelisted ERC-20 tokens pay gas, including USDT and USDC. On 29 July 2026 Tether deployed USAT, its US dollar token issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, to Celo as its first network beyond Ethereum, with native minting and burning and gas payable in USAT.
Products and services
- Celo L2
- An EVM-compatible Ethereum layer 2 built on the OP Stack, operating with a sequencer since the March 2025 migration from a standalone layer 1.
- CELO
- The network's native token, used for staking and governance voting and accepted as one of the currencies in which gas may be paid.
- Fee abstraction
- A protocol mechanism that lets a transaction nominate a whitelisted ERC-20 token, including stablecoins such as USDT and USDC, as the currency in which its gas is paid.
- Mento stablecoins
- Native multi-currency stablecoins, formerly cUSD, cEUR and cREAL and renamed USDm, EURm and BRLm, minted and redeemed through the Mento protocol against a reserve of crypto assets.
- SocialConnect
- An open protocol that maps identifiers such as phone numbers to Celo addresses so that a payment can be sent to a contact rather than to a hexadecimal address.
- USAT on Celo
- Tether's US dollar stablecoin, issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, deployed natively on Celo on 29 July 2026 with onchain minting and burning and the ability to pay gas.
Coverage
Developments in which Celo is a named party, newest first.
On the record
Tether's USAT stablecoin goes live on Celo, its first network beyond Ethereum
Tether's USAT, the dollar token issued by Anchorage Digital Bank under the GENIUS Act regime, went live on Celo on 29 July 2026, its first network beyond Ethereum. The deployment mints and burns natively rather than bridging a representation, and Celo's fee abstraction mechanism lets USAT pay transaction fees, so a holder can transact without first acquiring the network's own asset. The announcement ran through Celo's channels; Tether's newsroom carried no release of its own.