Tether unveiled a dollar-backed stablecoin Friday and named Bo Hines, former chief of President Donald Trump’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, as CEO of the U.S. effort.
The world’s largest stablecoin issuer by volume, Tether tagged the stateside push as a “natural next step in [its] mission: reinforcing U.S. dollar dominance in the digital era while delivering the highest standards of transparency, compliance and financial resilience,” according to a company press release.
The firm is aiming for a December launch for the stablecoin USAT – a move that may act as a reboot for Tether in the U.S. The company stopped serving American customers directly in 2021 and paid $41.5 million to settle allegations by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that it didn’t always have enough liquid assets to back up its stablecoins.
The company agreed that same year to publish quarterly reserve reports to settle allegations by the New York attorney general’s office that it – and sister company Bitfinex – commingled client and corporate funds to cover up to $850 million in missing assets.
In Tether’s absence, Circle has grown into the largest U.S. issuer of stablecoins – and went public in June. Tether’s reemergence stands to ramp up competition between the two.
Anchorage Digital Bank will issue USAT in the U.S. on Tether’s behalf. Investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald will serve as designated reserve custodian and preferred primary dealer. Tether’s U.S. effort will have its headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Tether’s return to the U.S. comes amid a backdrop that is seen as much friendlier toward crypto than a year ago. Regulators under Trump have moved to set aside differences companies may have had with Biden-era regulators, and Congress in June passed the Genius Act, outlining federal rules for stablecoins.
Hines linked up with Tether in August as a strategic adviser. The company said Hines’ latest appointment “underscores Tether’s commitment to launching USAT under U.S.-based leadership with a clear understanding of American regulatory priorities.”
“We believe deeply in the enduring power of the dollar,” Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said. “USAT is our commitment to ensuring that the dollar not only remains dominant in the digital age, but thrives – through products that are more transparent, more resilient, more accessible and more unstoppable than ever before.”
Tether is returning to market at a “very exciting moment because we were under severe pressure from competitors that want to create a monopolistic environment in the United States,” Ardoino said at a New York press conference attended by Reuters.
Hines, for his part, said he thinks Tether’s “expansion will be exorbitant over the course of the next 12 to 24 months.”
“Our message to potential partners out here is, let’s do business together. Let’s work together. Let’s find a way to revolutionize this system, and let’s do it quickly,” Hines said, according to Bloomberg. “I’m not shy in saying this, we want to dominate, but we want to dominate for the U.S. and we want to help people in doing so.”
Asked whether Tether would seek a charter in the U.S., Ardoino demurred, saying the company will rely on partners like Anchorage, which holds a charter with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
While USAT will originate in the U.S., cross-border transactions will use Tether’s existing USDT as a “distribution channel” abroad, Ardoino said.
"We are inviting financial institutions to work with us to leverage our ability to bring their services to the rest of the world and also the underserved communities in the United States, to create [a] backbone that, in this moment today, is very fragmented," Ardoino said, according to American Banker.
