USAT plays three cards, why does Tether urgently need a "legitimate clone"

Author: Peggy, Lin Wanwan, BlockBeats

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

Over the past decade, USDT has transformed itself into the “factual dollar” of the crypto world with $170 billion in assets and ubiquitous liquidity. But the more successful it becomes, the sharper its identity anxiety: a dollar without U.S. backing is always a loophole.

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

Under regulatory pressure and competition, in September 2025, Tether, the parent company of USDT, finally presented a new answer: USAT. This is its first attempt to make up for the long-missing ID card.

Meanwhile, Tether appointed 29-year-old former White House advisor Bo Hines as CEO. Ten years ago, he was a star wide receiver on Yale’s football team; now, he has been pushed to the most sensitive battlefield of the global financial market, becoming Tether’s “legitimate face” in the U.S.

Hines is not a parachute appointee. In January 2025, the White House established the Presidential Digital Asset Advisory Committee, with his name prominently on the executive director list. At only 28, he participated in drafting the GENIUS Act, the first legislative draft for stablecoin regulation in the U.S., laying the foundation for subsequent proposals.

Just a few months later, he resigned from the White House and joined the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, Tether, taking on the task of “expanding territory” in the U.S. market.

For Tether, this is a strategic attempt to deeply embed itself into the U.S. political and regulatory system. Hines’s addition is both a bargaining chip in Washington and the first step in actively correcting the “shadow empire” image.

But this is only the beginning. What truly gives USAT a chance to shed the “offshore dollar clone” impression is its behind-the-scenes design of a compliance combo: from introducing high-level domestic political and economic resources to connecting with traditional financial market systems, Tether aims to use three cards to write itself into the U.S. regulatory narrative and capital market logic.

The issuance of USAT is not just an expansion of the stablecoin landscape. It signifies that Tether is beginning to build a “legitimate clone” mechanism: no longer content with a role as a global capital channel, but aiming to reshape its identity into a compliant part of the U.S. financial order.

The Birth of a Legitimate Clone: USAT’s Three Cards

In recent years, stablecoins have become one of the most delicate assets in financial history. They are neither fully dollars nor entirely cryptocurrencies, yet over the past five years, they have penetrated every corner of the globe. Tether, which is approaching a valuation of $500 billion, has built a vast “shadow dollar” system with USDT: in Latin America, it is a lifeline for remittances; in Africa, it has replaced local inflationary currencies; in Southeast Asia, it has become a cross-border e-commerce settlement tool.

However, as the largest supplier of this system, Tether has always operated within regulatory gaps. Ambiguous audits, complex offshore structures, and shadows of money laundering and sanctions have led to its label 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, it is viewed as a potential systemic risk. A globally most widely circulated “digital dollar” without U.S. legal ID.

This identity dislocation has finally forced Tether to deliver a new solution. In September 2025, it launched USAT specifically targeting the U.S. market. This is not just an iteration but an experiment with three cards: people, money, and制度. Tether intends to use these three steps to see if a shadow dollar can be accepted within the American narrative.

The First Card: People

The first card of USAT is people—the political endorsement of Bo Hines.

Bo Hines, 29. During college, he was a starting wide receiver on Yale’s football team. An injury ended his athletic career early, after which he entered politics.

Bo Hines (in red) playing football source: Yale Daily News In 2020, he ran for Congress as a Republican candidate but was unsuccessful. Afterward, he entered policy circles. Starting in 2023, Hines served on the White House Digital Asset Advisory Committee, later becoming an executive director. According to public information, during his tenure, he participated in drafting the GENIUS Act, the first legislative draft for stablecoin regulation in the U.S., which served as a reference for many subsequent proposals.

In August 2025, Hines left the White House. On August 19, Tether announced that he would join as a strategic advisor, responsible for compliance and policy communication in the U.S. market. The same announcement also stated that a U.S.-regulated stablecoin—USAT—would be launched in the coming months.

Bo Hines attending an event and giving 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 product’s business development and regulatory liaison in the U.S. market.

Public information shows this is Tether’s first time introducing a high-level executive with a White House background into management. Previously, Tether’s management team mainly had financial or technical backgrounds, lacking direct U.S. policy experience.

Hines’s involvement ensures that USAT is bound from the outset to the U.S. regulatory environment.

The Second Card: Money

The second card is a set of credit backing Tether’s money. For years, Tether’s reserve composition has been controversial. Early audit reports showed that USDT reserves included大量商业票据、短期贷款以及难以溯源的资产组合。这些资产缺乏透明度，也成为外界质疑 Tether 最大的焦点：它是否真的「一币一美元」？

In USAT’s design, Tether attempts to dispel these doubts. The September 2025 announcement stated that the reserve custodian for USAT is Cantor Fitzgerald. Founded in 1945, this investment bank is one of the primary dealers for the U.S. Treasury, long involved in underwriting and distributing U.S. debt, with a solid credit reputation on Wall Street.

Cantor Fitzgerald New York office entrance source: Getty Images According to Tether’s plan, Cantor Fitzgerald will ensure that USAT’s reserves are primarily U.S. Treasuries. This means that the value backing USAT will no longer rely on complex offshore asset structures but will be directly anchored in the liquidity and credit system of the U.S. Treasury market.

This arrangement deepens Tether’s integration with the U.S. financial system: from a “shadow dollar” supplier to a “distributor on the U.S. debt chain.” Public information also indicates this is the first time Tether explicitly introduced Wall Street primary dealers as core partners in its product.

The Third Card: System

The issuance and compliance of USAT will be managed by Anchorage Digital Bank. This is one of the first digital asset banks in the U.S. to obtain a federal trust license and one of the few entities directly regulated by federal authorities. Unlike USDT, which relies on offshore structures, USAT’s reserves and audits will be incorporated into the U.S. regulatory framework. This not only aligns with the GENIUS Act’s requirements for stablecoin issuance but also signifies that Tether has completed a “regulatory registration” at the institutional level.

The choice of location is also noteworthy. Tether will base USAT’s headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina—the second-largest financial center in the U.S., home to institutions like Bank of America. Compared to New York or Washington, Charlotte offers a strong financial atmosphere while being relatively distant from the regulatory spotlight. This detail indicates that Tether is not just satisfied with structural changes but also aims for real operational “grounding.”

Bank of America corporate center in Charlotte source: SkyscraperCenter Therefore, USAT is not just an additional stablecoin but a formal handshake with the U.S. market. With Bo Hines in politics, Cantor in finance, and Anchorage in regulation, a complete compliance combo is formed, elevating Tether from a “shadow dollar” supplier to a “regulated participant.”

But how far this transformation can go remains uncertain. Tether’s fundamental nature has not changed: its business remains globalized, its structure offshore, and capital flows complex. USAT may grant it a U.S. ID card, but it cannot immediately change the market’s basic perception of Tether.

The launch of USAT signifies that Tether’s actions in issuing stablecoins are extending into a process of identity reconstruction: the shadow dollar begins knocking on Wall Street’s door.

Will the Stablecoin Market Reshape?

In the U.S. market, Tether’s new move directly targets Circle and its USDC.

Over the past few years, USDC has been the representative of the compliant U.S. market. But compared to USDT, USDC’s size and circulation are much smaller; as of September 2025, its market cap is about $70 billion, accounting for 25–26% of the stablecoin market.

Although only one-third of USDT’s size, USDC has established a solid trust in U.S. politics and Wall Street through exclusive cooperation 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, further strengthening control. The implicit narrative for USDC has long been: U.S. compliance = safety, offshore markets = risk.

However, this path also gives Tether room to exert pressure.

Tether’s CEO, Paolo Ardoino, has repeatedly emphasized that the significance of USAT is to break the potential monopoly USDC might form in the U.S. market.

He bluntly stated: “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 just a product upgrade but a direct market confrontation with USDC.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino speaking at the 2025 Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas source: Nasdaq Tether’s launch of USAT is an attempt to use its massive scale to fill the “compliance gap.” The significance of USAT lies in enabling Tether to combine scale and compliance for the first time, directly threatening USDC’s moat.

If Circle is a top-down compliant player rooted in the U.S., then Tether is building a “dual narrative” through USAT: maintaining a vast “gray empire” network globally while shaping a “compliant clone” in the U.S. market.

The future stablecoin landscape may evolve into a “dual-track pattern”: USDT continues to have a strong user base in emerging markets like Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia, while USAT focuses on the U.S. domestic and institutional clients. This structure can both sustain Tether’s advantage in emerging markets and attract more institutional capital through compliance, bringing new growth momentum to the entire sector.

For Tether, this is not just issuing a new coin or pushing for a listing; it’s a transformation of identity. Once it can be listed on the U.S. capital markets, it can completely shed the “shadow empire” label and enter the global financial stage as a “dollar company.”

However, Tether’s offensive will inevitably provoke responses from competitors. Circle is likely to accelerate cooperation with regulators and institutions to further solidify USDC’s compliance moat; licensed issuers like Paxos may expand their presence in payments and cross-border settlement markets.

Traditional financial giants are also showing interest, from Visa and Mastercard to Wall Street investment banks, exploring how to embed stablecoins into existing systems. It’s foreseeable that the launch of USAT will not only mark Tether’s identity shift but also trigger a new round of competition in the stablecoin sector.

Epilogue

The launch of USAT brings unprecedented opportunities for Tether but also new risks. Will the market believe that a “shadow empire” plagued with doubts can truly cut itself off with a compliant clone?

Historical experience shows that “whitening” gray forces is not without precedent.

In the late 19th century, American society was generally distrustful of financial capital; the Morgan family was even called “financial oligarchs.” Strictly speaking, Morgan did not violate the law, but in an era lacking modern regulation, his vast capital and influence were often seen as “hijacking public interests,” making him a “gray force” of that time.

However, banker J.P. Morgan changed his image through concrete actions: helping the government issue bonds, resolve fiscal crises, and restructuring debts of railroad companies. Over time, he transformed from a “capital oligarch” into a “financial agent of the state.”

Tether’s current strategy of buying U.S. bonds and promoting compliant stablecoins is somewhat similar to Morgan’s approach—solving problems for the country in exchange for legitimacy.

Old site of the Morgan family on Wall Street source: NYC Urbanism But not all “gray giants” can successfully complete such a transformation.

As the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance initially operated almost entirely offshore, skirting regulation. In recent years, it has begun applying for licenses in markets like France and Abu Dhabi, attempting to become compliant and trying to enter the U.S. market. But in the U.S., it faced the strictest regulatory resistance and had to scale back and tighten operations. This cautionary tale shows that gray giants seeking to “turn white” will not be easily tolerated by regulators.

This means Tether’s future remains uncertain. Transparency of reserves, compliance enforcement, and interaction with regulators will be key indicators to watch in the coming years.

Meanwhile, competition is accelerating.

Circle is applying for a U.S. national trust bank license to strengthen its compliance capabilities and further consolidate ties with regulators and institutional investors; Paxos has revealed a significant increase in demand for stablecoin infrastructure and has partnered with Mastercard to launch a “Global U.S. Dollar Network,” aiming to expand the use of U.S. dollar stablecoins; Visa is also continuously expanding support for stablecoin settlement, pushing these products into existing payment systems. At the same time, Plasma is attempting to embed stablecoins directly into the underlying infrastructure of global payment networks through on-chain clearing and cross-border payments.

The stablecoin market is shifting from early wild growth into a more intense and institutionalized competition phase.

USAT allows Tether to attempt to submit an ID card in Washington for the first time. The real test is not on-chain but at the negotiation table: who can leave a name on the regulatory agenda, and who will have the qualification to define the next generation of digital dollars. Whether the shadow empire can step into the sunlight remains the greatest suspense in crypto finance.