Tether announced on Tuesday that USAT, a regulated digital dollar stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital and targeted at the U.S. market, has expanded to the Celo blockchain. The move marks USAT’s first deployment beyond the Ethereum mainnet, where it originally launched in January. Google Cloud is providing infrastructure support for the rollout, and there are plans for USAT to function as a gas currency on the Celo network.
Celo is an Ethereum layer-2 scaling network with notable mobile reach, particularly through Opera MiniPay, which counts 14 million wallet users globally. The integration is intended to bring regulated digital dollar infrastructure to one of the more active on-chain ecosystems. Celo co-founder and CEO Rene Reinsberg described the launch as a validation of the infrastructure his team has built over the years, noting Tether’s selection of Celo for its first layer-2 USAT deployment.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said in a statement that more than 566 million people worldwide use USDT as a means of accessing and moving dollars, especially in regions where traditional financial systems are limited. He framed the Celo expansion as an extension of that mission, emphasizing the importance of making regulated digital dollar infrastructure available in environments where people are already conducting transactions. Ardoino added that the goal is to ensure these systems remain accessible at a global scale.
Reinsberg echoed that sentiment, stating that bringing USAT to Opera MiniPay’s mobile-first user base demonstrates what the next generation of financial access can look like. He described the offering as trusted, compliant, and immediately available to users. The partnership positions Celo as a key venue for regulated stablecoin activity targeting underserved or mobile-dependent populations.
On the technical side, the deployment includes a mainnet faucet system that allows verified users to obtain USAT through a privacy-preserving proof-of-humanity verification process developed in collaboration with Self and Google Cloud. Following the deployment, Celo’s governance process will begin working to formally enable USAT as a gas currency on the network. This would allow users to pay transaction fees directly in USAT rather than in the network’s native token.
Deloitte conducted the first USAT attestation report, released earlier in the month, which found that the stablecoin held $17.6 million in reserves — consisting of cash and U.S. Treasuries — backing approximately $17.5 million in tokens as of January 31. The attestation provides an early snapshot of the reserve backing for the relatively new stablecoin. USAT’s reserve transparency stands in contrast to the situation surrounding Tether’s flagship USDT product.
USDT leads the stablecoin industry with a market capitalization of $184 billion and has never undergone a full independent audit from one of the major accounting firms. Last week, Tether disclosed that it had engaged one of the so-called Big Four firms for an audit but did not identify which one. A subsequent report by the Financial Times indicated that KPMG would be conducting the audit, adding a new development to the long-running question of USDT’s financial transparency.
Originally reported by Decrypt.
