"Shadow Dollar" is about to go mainstream? Tether launches USAT, submits the first American identification.

Original Title: The Black and White Facets of Tether: The Gray Empire of USDT and the Legal Avatar of USAT

Original author: BlockBeats

Source:

Compiled by: Daisy, Mars Finance

The most stable asset in the crypto market is a dollar without an ID.

Over the past decade, USDT has transformed itself into the “de facto dollar” of the crypto world with $170 billion in assets and ubiquitous liquidity. However, the more successful it becomes, the sharper the identity anxiety: a dollar without the backing of the United States remains a loophole.

In recent years, Circle has applied for a trust bank license, Paxos has built a global clearing network, and Visa and Mastercard have also increased their investment in stablecoin settlements. In contrast, Tether has remained in the narrative of the “offshore shadow empire.”

Under regulatory pressure and the onslaught of competitors, in September 2025, Tether, the parent company of USDT, finally came up with a brand new answer: USAT. This is its first attempt to make up for the long-missing identity card.

At the same time, Tether appointed 29-year-old former White House advisor Bo Hines as CEO. Ten years ago, he was a star wide receiver for the Yale football team; now, he has been thrust into the most sensitive battleground of the global financial market, becoming Tether's “legal face” in the United States.

Hines did not parachute in. In January 2025, the White House established the President's Digital Asset Advisory Committee, and his name prominently appeared on the list of executive directors. At just 28 years old, he was involved in promoting the legislation of the GENIUS Act, laying the foundation for the regulatory framework of stablecoins in the United States. Just a few months later, he resigned from the White House and turned to join Tether, the largest stablecoin issuer in the world, taking on the important task of “expanding the territory” in the U.S. market.

For Tether, this is a strategic test of deeply embedding within the U.S. political and regulatory system. Hines's inclusion is not only a bargaining chip for Tether in Washington but also the first step in actively correcting its “shadow empire” image.

But this is just the beginning. What truly gives USAT the opportunity to break free from the impression of being an “offshore dollar clone” is the compliance strategy designed behind it: from introducing high-level political and economic resources from the U.S. to aligning with the institutional arrangements of traditional financial markets, Tether attempts to write itself into the narrative of U.S. regulation and the logic of capital markets with three cards.

The issuance of USAT is not just an expansion of the stablecoin landscape. It signifies that Tether is beginning to build a “legitimate avatar” mechanism for itself: no longer satisfied with being a global funding channel, but rather aiming to reshape its identity and become a compliant component of the American financial order.

The birth of legal avatars, the three cards of USAT

In recent years, stablecoins have become an increasingly important asset in financial history.

It is neither a complete dollar nor a thorough cryptocurrency, yet it has permeated every corner of the globe over the past five years. Tether, which is impacting a valuation of $500 billion, has built a huge “shadow dollar” system with USDT: in Latin America, it is the lifeline for workers' remittances; in Africa, it has replaced local inflationary currencies; in Southeast Asia, it has become the settlement tool for cross-border e-commerce.

However, as the largest supplier in this system, Tether has always maneuvered through regulatory gaps. Vague audits, complex offshore structures, and the shadows of money laundering and sanctions have led it to be labeled as a “shadow empire.”

For U.S. regulators, Tether's existence is a paradox: on one hand, it promotes the globalization of the dollar; on the other hand, it is seen as a potential systemic risk. A “digital dollar” that is the most widely circulated globally happens to lack a legitimate identification from the United States.

This identity misalignment has finally forced Tether to come up with a new solution. In September 2025, it launched USAT specifically for the U.S. market. This is not a simple iteration, but a three-card experiment: people, money, and system. Tether aims to use these three steps to bet whether a shadow dollar can be accepted by the American narrative.

The first card: Person

The first card of USAT is a person, the political endorsement of Bo Hines.

Bo Hines, 29 years old. During college, he was the starting wide receiver for the Yale football team. An injury cut his athletic career short, and he subsequently entered politics.

Bo Hines (Red Shirt) playing football Image source: Yale Daily News

In 2020, he ran for a congressional seat as a Republican candidate but was unsuccessful. However, after that, he entered the policy circle. Starting in 2023, Hines served on the White House Digital Asset Advisory Committee and later became the Executive Director. According to public information, during his tenure, he was involved in drafting the “GENIUS Act,” which is the first legislative draft for stablecoin regulation in the United States and has served as a reference for several subsequent proposals.

In August 2025, Hines left the White House. On August 19, Tether announced the appointment: Hines will join the company as a strategic advisor, responsible for compliance and policy communication in the U.S. market. In the same announcement, Tether also stated that it will launch a U.S. regulated stablecoin—USAT—in the coming months.

Bo Hines attended the event and gave a speech. Source: CCN

Less than a month later, in September 2025, Tether announced the launch of USAT and officially appointed Hines as the first CEO of USAT. This means he will lead the business promotion and regulatory coordination of this product in the US market.

Public information shows that this is the first time Tether has introduced an executive from a White House background into its management team. Previously, Tether's management mostly comprised individuals with financial or technical backgrounds, lacking direct experience in U.S. policy.

Hines's joining has bound USAT to the U.S. regulatory environment from the very beginning.

Second card: Money

The second card is for Tether, to get a set of credit endorsement.

In the past, the composition of Tether's reserves has been controversial. Early audit documents showed that the USDT reserves included a large amount of commercial paper, short-term loans, and a mix of hard-to-trace assets.

These assets lack transparency and have become the main focus of external skepticism towards Tether: is it really “one coin one dollar”?

In the design of USAT, Tether seeks to dispel such concerns. An announcement in September 2025 revealed that the reserve custodian of USAT is Cantor Fitzgerald. Founded in 1945, this investment bank is one of the primary dealers for the U.S. Treasury and has been involved in the underwriting and distribution of U.S. government bonds for a long time, holding a solid credit position on Wall Street.

Cantor Fitzgerald New York Office Entrance Image Source: Getty Images

According to Tether's plan, Cantor Fitzgerald will ensure that the reserve assets of USAT are primarily composed of U.S. Treasury securities. This means that the value support of USAT no longer relies on complex offshore asset structures, but is directly anchored in the liquidity and credit system of the U.S. Treasury market.

This arrangement has established a deeper binding relationship between Tether and the U.S. financial system at the asset level: transforming from a provider of “shadow dollars” to a “distributor on the U.S. Treasury chain.” From publicly available information, this is also the first time Tether has explicitly introduced Wall Street primary dealers as core partners in its products.

Third card: System

The issuance and compliance of USAT will be executed by Anchorage Digital Bank. This is among the first in the United States to obtain federal

The digital asset bank with a Bang Trust license is also one of the few compliant entities that can directly accept federal regulation. Unlike USDT, which relies on offshore structures, the reserves and auditing processes of USAT will be incorporated into the U.S. institutional framework.

This not only complies with the regulatory requirements for stablecoin issuance under the “GENIUS Act”, but also signifies that Tether has completed an “identity registration” on an institutional level.

The geographical choice is equally intriguing. Tether has set up the headquarters of USAT in Charlotte, North Carolina - the second largest financial center in the United States, which is home to traditional financial institutions like Bank of America. Compared to New York and Washington, Charlotte has a strong financial atmosphere while being relatively away from the spotlight of regulatory centers. This detail indicates that Tether is not satisfied with changes at the institutional design level but is trying to “truly land” in real operations.

Bank of America Corporate Center located in Charlotte Image source: SkyscraperCenter

USAT, therefore, is not just a newly added stablecoin, but a formal handshake between Tether and the U.S. market. Politically, Bo Hines; financially, Cantor; and institutionally, Anchorage, form a complete compliance combination, pushing Tether from a “shadow dollar” supplier to a new identity as an “institutional participant.”

But how far this transformation can go remains an unresolved question. The essence of Tether has not changed: its business path is still globalized, its structure is still offshore, and the flow of funds remains complex. USAT may bring a U.S. identification card, but it is difficult to immediately rewrite the market's fundamental perception of Tether.

The launch of USAT signifies Tether's move to issue stablecoins, extending into a reconstruction of identity: the shadow dollar begins to knock on Wall Street's door.

Will the stablecoin market landscape be reshuffled?

In the American market, Tether's new move is aimed directly at Circle and its issued USDC.

In recent years, USDC has been a representative of the compliant market in the United States. However, compared to USDT, USDC's volume and circulation are much smaller. As of September 2025, its market capitalization is approximately $70 billion, accounting for 25-26% of the stablecoin market.

Although its size is only one-third of USDT, USDC has established a solid trust in the U.S. political arena and Wall Street thanks to its exclusive partnership with Coinbase and endorsements from institutions like BlackRock.

Circle even repurchased shares of the joint venture Center in 2024, becoming the sole issuer of USDC to further strengthen its control. The long-standing implicit narrative of USDC has been: U.S. compliance = safety, offshore markets = risk.

However, it is precisely this path that has given Tether some room for pressure.

Tether's CEO Paolo Ardoino has repeatedly emphasized that the significance of USAT lies in breaking the potential monopoly that USDC could form in the U.S. market.

He stated directly: “Without USAT, the U.S. stablecoin market could be locked in the hands of a few institutions.” In other words, USAT's strategic mission is not only a product upgrade but also a direct market offensive and defensive against USDC.

Tether's CEO Paolo Ardoino spoke at the 2025 Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas. Source: Nasdaq

Tether has launched USAT, which is an attempt to use its large scale to fill the “compliance gap.” The significance of USAT lies in the fact that it allows Tether to combine scale and compliance for the first time, thereby posing a direct threat to the moat of USDC.

If Circle is a top-down compliance faction, rooted in the United States, then Tether is building a “dual narrative” through USAT: maintaining a vast network of a “gray empire” globally, while shaping a “compliance avatar” in the US market.

The future stablecoin market is likely to evolve into a “dual-track pattern”: USDT will continue to maintain a strong user base globally, especially in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia, while USAT will focus on domestic U.S. and institutional clients. This structure can stabilize Tether's advantage in emerging markets while attracting more institutional funds on the compliance level, bringing new expansion momentum to the entire sector.

For Tether, this is not just about issuing a new coin or advancing a listing, but rather a transformation of identity. Once it can be listed on the U.S. capital market, it will be able to completely shed the label of “shadow empire” and enter the global financial stage as a “dollar company.”

However, Tether's offensive is bound to provoke a response from its rivals. Circle is likely to accelerate its collaboration with regulators and institutions to further solidify the compliance moat of USDC; licensed issuers such as Paxos may take this opportunity to expand their presence in niche markets like payments and cross-border settlements.

Traditional financial giants have also shown interest, with Visa, Mastercard, and Wall Street investment banks exploring how to integrate stablecoins into the existing system. It is foreseeable that the launch of USAT is not only the starting point for Tether's identity transformation but may also become the catalyst for a new round of competition in the stablecoin track.

Can gray history be whitewashed?

The launch of USAT has brought unprecedented opportunities for Tether, but it also comes with new risks and challenges. Will the market believe that a heavily scrutinized 'shadow empire' can truly achieve self-separation with the help of a compliant counterpart?

Historical experience shows that there are precedents for the “turning white” of gray powers.

In the late 19th century, American society was generally filled with distrust towards financial capital, and the Morgan family was even labeled as “financial oligarchs.” Strictly speaking, Morgan did not break the law, but in an era lacking modern regulation, its vast capital and influence were often seen as “hijacking the public interest,” thus becoming a “gray power” of the time.

However, banker John Pierpont Morgan changed his image through action: while helping the government issue national bonds and solve fiscal crises, he also assisted railway companies in restructuring their debts. Over time, he transformed from a “capital oligarch” into a “financial agent of the state.”

Tether is aggressively buying U.S. Treasuries today and pushing for a compliant version of stablecoins, which is somewhat similar to what Morgan did back in the day, exchanging solutions for national issues to gain legal status.

The Morgan family at the old site on Wall Street. Image source: NYC Urbanism

However, not all “gray giants” can successfully complete such a transformation.

As the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange platform, Binance was almost completely “offshore” in its early days, operating outside of regulations. In recent years, it has begun applying for licenses in markets such as France and Abu Dhabi, attempting to move towards compliance and trying to enter the US market.

But in the United States, it faced the most severe regulatory resistance, ultimately having to scale back and tighten its business. This cautionary tale indicates that gray giants seeking to “turn white” will not be easily granted regulatory approval.

This means that the future of Tether remains full of uncertainty. Reserve transparency, compliance enforcement, and interaction with regulators will all be indicators that will continue to be tested in the coming years.

At the same time, the acceleration of competition has begun to take shape. Circle is applying for a national trust bank license in the United States to

Strengthen compliance capabilities and further consolidate ties with regulators and institutional investors; Paxos has revealed a significant increase in demand for its stablecoin infrastructure and has launched a “Global Dollar Network” with Mastercard, aiming to expand the use of USD stablecoins; meanwhile, Visa is continuously expanding support for stablecoin settlements, promoting the integration of these products into existing payment systems.

At the same time, Plasma is trying to embed stablecoins directly into the underlying infrastructure of the global payment network, using on-chain settlement and cross-border payments as entry points.

The stablecoin market is transitioning from its early stage of wild growth into a more intense and institutionalized phase of competition.

USAT, let Tether try to submit its ID for the first time in Washington. The real test is not on the chain, but at the conference table: who can leave their name on the regulatory agenda, who is qualified to define the next generation of digital dollars. Whether the shadow empire can step into the sunlight will be an important suspense in crypto finance.