Tether launches USAT, a US-regulated dollar stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank
Tether announced USAT on 27 January 2026, a dollar stablecoin issued in the United States by Anchorage Digital Bank under the GENIUS Act framework, with Cantor Fitzgerald as reserve custodian and preferred primary dealer. The token is separate from USDT, which continues to be issued offshore.
What happened
Tether said USAT would be issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A., a federally chartered institution, making it a federally regulated payment stablecoin issuer under the GENIUS Act. Cantor Fitzgerald was named reserve custodian and preferred primary dealer for the Treasury holdings backing the token. Bo Hines was named chief executive of the US entity, reporting alongside Tether group chief executive Paolo Ardoino. Initial distribution was announced through Bybit, Crypto.com, Kraken, OKX and Moonpay. Tether did not publish target circulation or a timetable for scaling USAT relative to USDT. The structural point, noted in subsequent analysis, is that USAT does not replace USDT. Tether's offshore token, which accounts for the large majority of its outstanding supply, remains outside the GENIUS Act perimeter, while USAT provides a compliant instrument for US-regulated distribution.
Why it matters
USAT is the first test of whether the GENIUS Act produces genuine onshore competition or a compliance wrapper alongside an unchanged offshore business. The two-token structure lets the largest stablecoin issuer serve regulated US demand without subjecting its main float to US reserve, redemption and audit requirements. For market structure, the question is fungibility. If USAT and USDT trade at a persistent basis, or if liquidity fragments between onshore and offshore dollar tokens, the cost of stablecoin settlement rises for anyone bridging the two. If they trade at parity because arbitrage is easy, the regulatory perimeter has less economic force than its drafters intended.
What is not settled
Tether has not published USAT circulation, reserve attestations on the same cadence as USDT, or a policy on convertibility between the two tokens.
Institutions in this story
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Tether
Issuer
El Salvador-licensed issuer of USDT, the largest dollar token, which is not offered to US customers; a separate US token, USAT, is issued by Anchorage Digital Bank under Office of the Comptroller of the Currency supervision.
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Anchorage Digital
Custodian
Issuer of record for other companies' regulated dollar tokens, including Tether's US token USAT and Western Union's USDPT, a role open to it because the Comptroller of the Currency has supervised it as a bank since January 2021.
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Cantor Fitzgerald
Bank
Custodian of the Treasury reserves behind Tether's stablecoins and one of the 24 primary dealers authorised to trade US government securities with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; in July 2026 it agreed to work with Securitize on tokenized share issuance during initial public offerings.
On the record
Tether announces USAT, a US-issued dollar stablecoin
Tether announced USAT, a dollar stablecoin issued in the United States by Anchorage Digital Bank under the GENIUS Act framework, with Cantor Fitzgerald as reserve custodian and preferred primary dealer. The token sits alongside USDT, which continues to be issued outside the United States.