The launch comes as the U.S. stablecoin market expands under new regulatory clarity.
Stablecoin-issuer Tether unveiled a new stablecoin for American users, dubbed USAT, during an event in New York City on Friday, Sept. 12.
The coin will be U.S.-regulated and pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar, and was announced alongside news that Bo Hines will serve as Tether USAT’s future Chief Executive Officer.
The motive behind the decision is to bring stablecoins to the most prominent financial market in the world, the U.S., said Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino. Tether is the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin, USDT, which currently commands a 58% market share with a market cap of $169 billion.
The move comes amid a stablecoin boom, which has boosted the sector’s total market capitalization to $287 billion as of today from $208 billion at the start of the year.
“For over a decade, Tether – as the creator of the stablecoin industry – has issued USDT, the backbone of the digital economy, and today the U.S dollar stablecoin for hundreds of millions of underserved people living in emerging markets, proving that digital assets can deliver trust, resilience, and freedom on a global scale,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, per a press release.
The sector’s expansion has also been driven by regulatory clarity from Congress, which in mid-July passed the stablecoin-focused GENIUS Act. President Donald Trump signed the Act into law the following day.
The release revealed that USAT will leverage Hadron by Tether, a real-world assets (RWA) tokenization platform. Anchorage Digital will serve as USAT’s GENIUS Act-compliant issuer.
When asked if Tether was planning to go public soon, Ardoino simply said “no.”
Source: https://thedefiant.io/news/defi/tether-unveils-usat-american-stablecoin