Original Title: "Compliance Stablecoin Battle Heats Up as Tether Launches USAT Targeting the U.S."

Original Author: Azuma, Odaily Planet Daily

On January 27, Stablecoin leader Tether officially announced the launch of its new U.S. dollar stablecoin USAT, targeting the U.S. market and designed specifically for the GENIUS regulatory framework.

The promotion of USAT has been long-awaited. As early as last year's GENIUS Act breakthrough, Tether had already decided to launch a new dollar stablecoin in addition to USDT to compete head-to-head with other stablecoins in the U.S. market within a compliant system; subsequently, Tether has disclosed the development progress and design details of USAT several times, with rumors suggesting it would launch by the end of 2025, but it finally landed in January of this year.

USAT: A More Compliant USDT

With the official launch of USAT, the veil of this new stablecoin has been completely lifted.

According to Tether's official statement, USAT is tailored for the U.S. market, and its design will fully comply with the new federal stablecoin regulatory framework established by the GENIUS Act (you can think of it as a compliant version of USDT). Specifically, Tether will issue USAT through the U.S. federal chartered bank Anchorage Digital Bank, with Cantor Fitzgerald designated as the reserve fund custodian and preferred primary dealer for USAT, and former White House cryptocurrency council executive director Bo Hines will serve as the CEO directly responsible for USAT's operations.

At the initial stage, USAT will only be issued on the Ethereum mainnet, with an initial issuance size of $20 million, and the official contract address is 0x07041776f5007aca2a54844f50503a18a72a8b68.

On the distribution front, Bybit, Crypto.com, Kraken, OKX, and Moonpay will be the first batch of platforms supporting USAT, and each platform has already announced the official launch of USAT. Interestingly, the first batch of platforms does not include Binance and Coinbase, with the former currently flirting with World Liberty Financial (USD1), and the latter having long-standing interests tied to Circle (USDC), the choice to temporarily not support USAT may have some strategic considerations.

The funding of Tether is undeniable. In 2025, Tether achieved a profit of tens of billions of dollars in just three quarters. However, the issue here is that Tether has always been opposed to subsidizing returns. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino expressed disdain for the industry's pursuit of interest-bearing stablecoins last year, calling it a "terrible idea." Therefore, it is still unknown whether Tether will adopt a growth plan similar to USD1 for USAT in the future.

This is the unresolved issue for Tether—during the stablecoin's development process, Tether used USDT to take full advantage of its first-mover position. This time, as a latecomer playing catch-up, Tether's breakthrough strategy is worth looking forward to.

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