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What Is USAT?

USAT (formally "Tether America USD") is a US dollar stablecoin created by Tether for the American market. It is issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A., the first federally chartered digital asset bank in the United States, and it is designed to meet the GENIUS Act, the federal stablecoin law signed on July 18, 2025. Tether announced the token on September 12, 2025 and it went live on Ethereum on January 27, 2026.

USAT Is Not USDT

This is the single most important thing to understand about USAT. Tether already issues USDT, the largest stablecoin in the world, with roughly 184 billion dollars in circulation. USDT is an offshore, globally distributed token that is not issued under US federal stablecoin rules. USAT is a completely separate token, issued by a different legal entity (a US federally chartered bank), under a different regulator, with a different reserve policy. The two are not interchangeable and are not fungible with each other. USDT continues to serve users outside the United States, especially in emerging markets, while USAT is the token Tether intends to sell to US institutions, exchanges, and businesses.

Why Tether Built A Second Token Instead Of Fixing The First

The GENIUS Act requires a compliant stablecoin to hold reserves at least 1:1 in a narrow list of assets: US currency, deposits at the Federal Reserve or insured banks, Treasury bills with 93 days or less to maturity, overnight repos backed by Treasuries, and government money market funds. It restricts issuance to approved "permitted payment stablecoin issuers," requires monthly public reserve disclosures examined by a registered accounting firm, forbids the issuer from paying interest or yield to holders, and requires the issuer to be able to freeze or burn tokens on a lawful order.

USDT does not fit inside those rules as it stands. Tether's reserves behind USDT include roughly 20 billion dollars of gold plus a large bitcoin position, both of which the GENIUS Act would not permit. Converting USDT to a compliant reserve would mean liquidating those holdings and accepting a return capped at short-term Treasury yields, which would dismantle a large part of what makes Tether profitable. Creating USAT lets Tether keep USDT exactly as it is for the rest of the world while running a separate product inside the United States, built to the GENIUS Act's requirements. It is worth being precise here: the Act's rules are not yet in force (they take effect in January 2027, or 120 days after final rules are issued, whichever comes first), so USAT is best described as built for that regime rather than certified as compliant with it. That matters because from July 18, 2028, US digital asset service providers will be barred from offering stablecoins that were not issued by a GENIUS-approved issuer. USAT is Tether's answer to that deadline, and it also puts the company in direct competition with Circle's USDC on Circle's home turf.

Backing, Reserves, And Attestations

Each USAT is intended to be redeemable 1:1 for a US dollar. Reserves are limited to cash and short-dated US Treasuries, in line with the GENIUS Act. Anchorage Digital Bank handles issuance, reserve management, and compliance oversight as the regulated issuer, and its charter places USAT under supervision by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Cantor Fitzgerald is the designated reserve custodian and preferred primary dealer. Monthly reserve reports are published under the AICPA's 2025 criteria for stablecoin reporting, with an independent attestation from Deloitte. The first report, covering January 31, 2026, showed about 17.6 million dollars of cash and Treasuries backing roughly 17.5 million dollars of tokens. Note that an attestation is a point-in-time snapshot, not a full audit, which is the same limitation critics have long raised about USDT.

Chains And Supply

USAT launched as an ERC-20 token on Ethereum and expanded to Celo, announced on March 31, 2026, in its first deployment beyond Ethereum mainnet. That rollout is supported by Google Cloud infrastructure, and Celo governance has moved to allow USAT to be used to pay gas fees on the network. Supply is uncapped and minted on demand as buyers deposit dollars. Circulating supply grew from about 22 million tokens at the end of March 2026 to roughly 141 million at the end of April, a jump of more than 500 percent in a single month, then to about 156 million at the end of May. As of mid-July 2026, USAT's market capitalization sits near 185 million dollars.

Risks And Honest Context

USAT is small. Even after its rapid growth, it is a rounding error next to USDC (around 76 billion dollars), PayPal's PYUSD (around 5.5 billion dollars), and Ripple's RLUSD (around 1.7 billion dollars), and it is dwarfed by Tether's own USDT. Daily trading volume is only a few million dollars, so liquidity is thin and the price has drifted slightly below a dollar at times, with an all-time low around $0.9961. Tether also has a contested history: in 2021 Tether and Bitfinex paid 18.5 million dollars to settle claims with the New York Attorney General over statements about USDT's backing, and USDT has never completed a full independent audit, though Tether says one began in early 2026. USAT's design (a US bank issuer, a narrow reserve, monthly attestations) is a direct response to that criticism, but it is a new token with a short track record. Finally, USAT is a centralized asset by law: the issuer can freeze and burn tokens when legally required to.

Getting Started With USAT

USAT behaves like any other ERC-20 stablecoin. Most users will acquire it on an exchange and either hold it there or move it to a self-custody wallet:

  1. Step 1: Set up an account on an exchange that lists USAT (Kraken, OKX, Bybit, and Crypto.com were launch distribution partners) and complete identity verification.
  2. Step 2: Buy USAT with dollars or swap another stablecoin for it. Remember that USAT and USDT are different tokens and do not convert to each other automatically.
  3. Step 3: Set up an Ethereum-compatible wallet and withdraw your USAT to it, selecting the correct network (Ethereum or Celo). You will need ETH for gas on Ethereum.
  4. Step 4: Use USAT for payments, settlement, or as a dollar-denominated holding, and check the monthly reserve reports if you want to verify the backing.

How to Get a USAT Wallet?

USAT is a standard ERC-20 token, so any wallet that supports Ethereum tokens can hold it. Always confirm you are using the correct contract address, since ticker symbols are easy to spoof and other unrelated tokens use the letters USAT.

MetaMask

MetaMask is the most common choice for holding USAT on Ethereum. Add the token by its contract address, and keep a small amount of ETH in the wallet to cover gas fees. MetaMask also supports Celo, where USAT is available.

Rumble Wallet

Rumble Wallet is listed as an ecosystem partner on the official USAT site and is one of the consumer-facing wallets integrating the token.

Trust Wallet

Trust Wallet is a multi-chain mobile wallet that supports Ethereum ERC-20 tokens, making it a straightforward option for holding USAT on a phone.

Hardware Wallets

For larger balances, a Ledger or Trezor device paired with MetaMask keeps the private keys offline. Institutions can also custody USAT with Anchorage Digital, the token's issuer and a federally chartered bank.

USAT Resources

How to Buy USAT?

USAT is listed on a modest number of venues compared to established stablecoins, and its trading volume is small, so expect wider spreads than you would see on USDT or USDC.

Centralized Exchanges

Kraken, OKX, Bybit, and Crypto.com were named as distribution partners at launch, and MoonPay supports USAT purchases. The token also trades on Bitget, HTX, and MEXC, where USAT/USDT is typically the most active pair. Institutional buyers can mint and redeem directly through Anchorage Digital, with FalconX also listed as an ecosystem partner.

Decentralized Exchanges

On Ethereum, USAT can be swapped on DEXs such as Uniswap and Curve, mostly against other stablecoins. On-chain liquidity is still shallow relative to the major stablecoins, so large swaps can move the price. Fund an Ethereum wallet, connect it, and confirm the contract address before trading.

Latest USAT News

USAT's first half of 2026 was defined by rapid percentage growth from a very small base. Supply rose more than sixfold in April 2026, which Tether USAT's CEO, Bo Hines (previously Executive Director of the White House Crypto Council), attributed to institutional treasury operations, settlement flows, and regulated dollar liquidity management. Tether deepened the relationship with its issuer in February 2026 by investing 100 million dollars in Anchorage Digital. The March 31, 2026 expansion to Celo was USAT's first move off Ethereum mainnet.

The bigger question for USAT is the July 18, 2028 deadline, after which US digital asset service providers can only offer stablecoins from GENIUS-approved issuers. Tether's leadership has set very ambitious targets for the token, but as of mid-2026 USAT holds a fraction of one percent of the US-regulated stablecoin market that USDC dominates. The USAT press page and its monthly reserve reports are the best places to track supply, reserves, and new chain deployments.