Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Tether plans to issue USDT natively on Bitcoin through RGB. RGB uses Bitcoin for commitments while keeping contract data off-chain. Morgan Stanley personnel reportedly discussed the infrastructure, but no bank rollout has been announced. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has put Bitcoin back at the center of USDT’s expansion strategy, saying the world’s largest stablecoin is “coming home” as institutional discussions emerge around its Bitcoin-native infrastructure.

USDT on Bitcoin. It's coming home https://t.co/JnUo8og7Vv

— Paolo Ardoino 🤖 (@paoloardoino) September 24, 2026

Tether has already committed to issuing USDT through RGB, potentially opening Bitcoin to a stablecoin market worth roughly $183.5 billion without requiring Tether to build a blockchain of its own.

The opportunity is not $183.5 billion suddenly migrating onto Bitcoin. It is whether Bitcoin can capture a meaningful share of stablecoin settlement that currently happens elsewhere.

USDT Is Coming to Bitcoin, Not a Tether Blockchain Ardoino’s latest comment follows speculation over whether Tether might eventually create a proprietary blockchain.

That is not the strategy the company has announced.

Tether said in August 2025 that it would bring USDT to RGB, which had reached Bitcoin mainnet with its v0.11.1 release. The integration is designed to let users hold and transfer Bitcoin and USDT from the same wallet while using Bitcoin as the underlying commitment layer.

“Bitcoin deserves a stablecoin that feels truly native, lightweight, private, and scalable,” Ardoino said when Tether announced the project.

RGB matters because it does not work like an Ethereum-style smart-contract network.

Its architecture uses client-side validation, meaning participants validate the contract history relevant to their assets rather than requiring every network node to store and validate the complete contract state.

Contract data remains off-chain. Compact cryptographic commitments are anchored to Bitcoin, while single-use seals tied to Bitcoin UTXOs help establish ownership transitions and prevent the same state from being reused.

That gives Tether a route onto Bitcoin without creating another global execution layer.

One Bitcoin Stack, Three Different Jobs USDT ON BITCOIN

Three Layers, Three Jobs

01

SETTLEMENT FOUNDATION

Bitcoin

Provides the UTXOs and proof-of-work-secured commitment layer used by RGB.

02

ASSET LAYER

RGB v0.11.1

Issues and transfers assets through client-side validation and Bitcoin-anchored single-use seals.

03

PAYMENT LAYER

Lightning

RGB supports assets moving through Lightning channels for faster off-chain payments.

Key distinction: USDT would use this infrastructure rather than migrate onto a new Tether-owned blockchain.

RGB’s design also changes what “on Bitcoin” means.

USDT contract state would not simply be written into every Bitcoin block for the entire network to process. Each recipient instead validates the relevant history locally, while Bitcoin provides the commitments that make those state changes verifiable.

RGB says its assets can also move natively through typed Lightning channels rather than relying on a bridge.

For stablecoins, that combination targets two constraints simultaneously: using Bitcoin as the security foundation without requiring every payment to compete directly for base-layer blockspace.

Morgan Stanley Puts Institutions Into the Conversation The latest institutional angle comes from Viktor Ihnatiuk, co-founder of Bitcoin infrastructure company Utexo.

Ihnatiuk said he discussed USDT on Bitcoin with Morgan Stanley personnel in Washington, with the conversation involving Utexo’s work around the technology. Ardoino subsequently amplified the development with his “coming home” comment.

There is an important limit to what can be concluded from that exchange.

Morgan Stanley has not announced a USDT settlement product, commercial launch or formal deployment. The reported discussions show institutional interest around the infrastructure, not a confirmed banking product.

That distinction also makes the next stage easier to measure.

A bank discussing Bitcoin-native stablecoin infrastructure is interesting. A bank using it to settle real transactions would be materially different.

Bitcoin Is Competing for Stablecoin Settlement Tether already distributes USDT across established blockchain networks, so Bitcoin is not entering an empty market.

It has to win activity from rails where exchanges, wallets, market makers and users already have deep stablecoin infrastructure.

That changes how a successful launch should be judged.

Total USDT supply says little about Bitcoin adoption. More useful indicators would be USDT issued through RGB, transfer volume, active wallets, Lightning liquidity supporting RGB assets, exchange integrations and institutional settlement activity.

Those metrics would show whether the integration is becoming financial infrastructure or simply another supported network.

The technical architecture gives Bitcoin a distinctive pitch.

It can offer the monetary security of the base chain, an asset protocol that keeps contract state largely client-side and a payment network designed to move value without waiting for an individual base-layer confirmation for every transaction.

But architecture does not create liquidity by itself.

The Test Starts After USDT Goes Live Tether bringing USDT to Bitcoin would remove one technical barrier between the world’s largest stablecoin and the world’s largest crypto asset.

The economic test comes afterward.

If USDT balances begin accumulating through RGB, Lightning channels develop usable stablecoin liquidity and financial institutions move from discussions to live transactions, Bitcoin would be doing something materially different from simply securing BTC ownership.

It would be competing for the dollar settlement activity that has historically concentrated on other crypto networks.

That is the number worth watching, not Tether’s total market capitalization.

Alex is a financial markets journalist and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, and he's spent close to ten years trying to answer one stubborn question: what's really driving this? It started in 2016, when Bitcoin refused to make sense to him - and rather than shrug, he stayed with it until it did. That patience became his method. He's less interested in what an asset is doing today than in the plumbing behind it: how liquidity flows, where risk hides, what a chart is quietly telling you that the headline isn't. That lens eventually stretched well past crypto into traditional markets, because the same forces - fear, leverage, incentives, timing - show up everywhere once you know how to look. Most coverage, in his view, insults the reader by stopping at the surface. Price up, price down, moving on. He'd rather leave someone genuinely understanding a move than merely informed that it happened. His path into markets ran through a Tourism degree at New Bulgarian University - proof, maybe, that curiosity beats credentials. With more than 200 deep analyses and over 10,000 articles behind him, he still walks away from most trading days having learned something he didn't know that morning.

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TLDR Russia estimates about 20 million residents hold 3.7 trillion rubles, or roughly $44 billion, in crypto and related products. Daily crypto transactions in Russia total about 50 billion rubles, according to Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov. Investors may have to absorb losses if foreign stablecoin issuers like Tether or Circle freeze their assets. Starting May 2, 2027, residents must report crypto activity on addresses outside Russia’s regulated system to tax authorities. Nonqualified investors face a 300,000-ruble yearly purchase cap through each intermediary after passing a test. Russia has set out new crypto reporting rules as officials estimate that residents hold about 3.7 trillion rubles, or roughly $44 billion, in digital assets. The figures come from Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov.

In an interview published by TASS on Sept. 22, Chebeskov said about 20 million people in Russia use cryptocurrency. He put daily transaction volume at around 50 billion rubles.

The holdings figure includes crypto owned directly and some financial products linked to digital assets. The Finance Ministry says these are expert estimates, not a full count of every wallet or transaction.

Foreign Stablecoin Freezes Could Leave Investors With Losses Chebeskov warned that investors may have to absorb losses if a foreign stablecoin issuer freezes their assets. He named USDT and USDC as examples.

“The risk of assets being blocked by a foreign issuer does exist,” he said.

Under Federal Law No. 282-FZ, a Russian digital depository is still responsible for failures in its own custody, accounting and transfer duties. However, Article 20 allows contracts to state that operators are not liable for losses caused by foreign parties that seize assets or restrict transactions.

This means a freeze by a foreign issuer would not automatically require a Russian depository to repay the customer.

The risk has already hit Russia’s market. In March 2025, Tether said it helped the U.S. Secret Service freeze $23 million in USDT tied to the sanctioned Russian exchange Garantex. The freeze forced Garantex to suspend operations.

Circle’s terms also allow it to block USDC addresses linked to prohibited activity or when required by a valid government order.

New Reporting Rules and Trading Limits Russia’s main cryptocurrency law took effect on Sept. 1. Both qualified and nonqualified investors can now trade crypto through regulated intermediaries. Using crypto to pay for goods and services inside Russia remains banned.

Nonqualified investors must pass a test and can buy up to 300,000 rubles of eligible crypto per year through each intermediary. Qualified investors must also pass testing but face no such cap.

Residents can still use crypto addresses outside the domestic system. Starting May 2, 2027, they must report operations involving those addresses to the Federal Tax Service.

The rule does not ban self-custody. Reporting rules differ for some residents who spend more than 183 days outside Russia.

The Bank of Russia has published rules requiring depositories to hold capital of 50 million to 250 million rubles, depending on their services. Independent crypto exchanges need at least 15 million rubles in their own funds.

Market participants have until July 1, 2027, to obtain approvals and comply with the framework.

Officials are also studying whether Russia should create its own stablecoin. Chebeskov said it is “too early to talk about a specific model or a final bill.”

Enforcement rules are still being built. Starting July 1, 2027, Article 21 of the law will require banks to restrict payments to entities suspected of illegally running crypto operations.

A separate bill would make unlicensed crypto operations that cause large losses a criminal offense, with prison terms of up to seven years. The State Duma passed it in first reading, but it has not yet become law.

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According to a notice from the Public Security Bureau of Linwu County, Chenzhou City, Hunan Province, China, on August 19, 2026, the bureau uncovered fraud clues during routine patrols and successfully cracked a virtual currency investment fraud case, arresting two suspects. Upon investigation, on May 1, 2026, suspect Li contacted victim Ms. Yue via private message on a social media platform, falsely claiming he could teach virtual currency investment skills and guarantee stable returns, inducing her to download an app to purchase Tether (USDT) and convert it into a newly launched virtual currency operated by his upstream accomplice. Li and his accomplice artificially inflated the coin’s price to create an illusion of growth, repeatedly persuading the victim to invest more funds. Once the money was received, they dumped the coins rapidly, causing the virtual currency’s value to plummet to zero. Ms. Yue suffered losses of approximately 30,000 yuan, while Li illegally profited tens of thousands of yuan. The illicit funds were collected by his friend Lei and then squandered entirely. Li was arrested by investigators on August 19; Lei, who was suspected of collecting the illicit funds, was taken into custody on September 17. Both suspects have been placed under criminal detention in accordance with the law. The case is currently under further investigation. The police issued a reminder: Virtual currencies are not legal tender, and there are no "guaranteed profit" investment schemes. Any private message recommendation online that promises high returns is a fraud trap. Do not trust investment recommendations from strangers or transfer funds to unfamiliar platforms.

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The European Central Bank and the EU’s 27 national central banks have asked regulators to replace MiCA’s 30% and 60% bank-deposit floors for stablecoin reserves with maturity-based liquidity requirements.

Summary

MiCA requires regular stablecoin issuers to hold 30% of reserves in commercial bank deposits. The bank-deposit requirement rises to 60% for stablecoins classified as significant. European central banks said large redemptions could transmit stress from stablecoins to commercial lenders. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino warned about the same reserve structure in 2024. The European System of Central Banks said in its response to the European Commission’s MiCA consultation that stablecoin issuers should not have to place a fixed share of their reserves in bank deposits.

Instead, the ESCB recommended setting minimum proportions for reserve assets that mature within one working day and five working days. Such a model would focus on how quickly an issuer can access its reserves during redemptions rather than how much money it keeps at commercial banks.

MiCA currently requires issuers to hold at least 30% of their reserves as bank deposits. For issuers whose tokens receive the “significant” classification, the requirement rises to 60%.

“If reserves are held as bank deposits, stablecoins can alter banks’ funding structures by replacing relatively stable retail deposits with deposits from stablecoin issuers, which tend to be less stable and more sensitive to market conditions,” the central banks said in their response, according to Reuters.

MiCA deposit rule could transmit redemption stress Under the existing model, a stablecoin issuer may receive money from customers and place the required portion with one or more commercial banks. A rush to redeem tokens could then force the issuer to withdraw a large amount of those deposits within a short period.

The ESCB said such withdrawals could expose commercial lenders to a stablecoin run because deposits from token issuers behave differently from ordinary household deposits. Issuer deposits may leave quickly when crypto markets face stress or token holders seek redemptions.

While drafting MiCA, EU policymakers treated bank deposits as a source of readily available liquidity. An ECB study published in April said a significant stablecoin issuer could meet redemptions equal to as much as 60% of its supply by drawing down deposits without immediately selling sovereign bonds.

The same study also identified a second risk: withdrawals during a stablecoin run could pass financial stress into the banking system. Deposits may protect bond markets from forced sales at first, according to the ECB, while placing the commercial banks holding the money under pressure.

MiCA’s reserve design has already affected which stablecoins European exchanges can support. As crypto.news reported in July, USDT lost access to regulated EU exchange order books after Tether declined to seek authorization under the framework.

Coinbase Europe removed USDT in December 2024, followed by Crypto.com in January 2025. Binance restricted European USDT trading pairs in March 2025, while Kraken moved the token to a sell-only model before ending support.

More than two years before the ESCB response, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino argued that MiCA’s deposit floor could expose stablecoin holders to failures at commercial banks.

In an August 2024 interview with Wired, Ardoino used a hypothetical €10 billion stablecoin to explain his concern. Under the 60% requirement, an issuer would need to place €6 billion with banks, which could then use much of the money for lending.

“Imagine a customer asks to redeem €2 billion [worth of stablecoin], but the bank has only €600 million,” Ardoino said. “Then you are in a situation in which both the bank and stablecoin go bankrupt.”

Ardoino said he did not consider the structure safe and argued that it could create “additional systemic risks in Europe” instead of reducing them. His comments focused on the possibility that an issuer could lose access to uninsured deposits precisely when token holders request large redemptions.

Several months earlier, in April 2024, Ardoino had pointed to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank as evidence of the risk attached to uninsured deposits. Circle’s USDC temporarily lost its dollar peg in March 2023 after the company disclosed that $3.3 billion of its reserves were held at the failed bank.

“Uninsured cash deposits are not a good idea,” Ardoino wrote. “If a bank goes bankrupt, uninsured cash goes into bankruptcy.”

Calling for issuers to be allowed to keep all reserves in Treasury bills, Ardoino argued that securities would return to their legal owner following a bank failure. Tether has kept much of USDT’s backing in U.S. Treasury securities rather than adopting MiCA’s European bank-deposit model.

The company later said it would reconsider a MiCA application only when the framework became safer for issuers and consumers. European restrictions have continued in the meantime, with OKX Europe opening a one-way conversion route in July for customers moving from USDT into MiCA-authorized USDC.

MiCA review gives regulators a route to amend reserves The ESCB submitted its recommendation through the European Commission’s review of MiCA, which began with a public consultation on May 20 and accepted responses through Aug. 31.

According to the Commission, the review sought input from token issuers, crypto service providers, financial institutions, technology companies, academics, industry groups and public authorities. Officials are examining whether MiCA remains suitable after changes in digital-asset markets and international regulation.

Feedback will inform a report required under Articles 140 and 142 of MiCA. The Commission could attach a legislative proposal if it decides that the regulation needs amendments, as previously covered in a report on the planned MiCA review in 2027.

Stablecoin reserve rules are not the ECB’s only focus. A separate paper published in September called for the current prohibition on issuer-paid stablecoin interest to cover rewards offered through affiliated exchanges, lending products and staking services. The proposal to expand the yield ban addresses returns paid to users, while the latest ESCB recommendation concerns the assets held against tokens.

U.S. rules allow deposits and Treasury securities For U.S. token holders, the dispute provides a direct comparison with the reserve system created by the GENIUS Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law in July 2025.

The U.S. framework requires permitted payment stablecoin issuers to maintain reserves of at least one dollar for every dollar of tokens in circulation. Eligible assets include U.S. dollars, funds held at certain regulated or insured depository institutions, short-term Treasury securities, Treasury-backed reverse repurchase agreements and qualifying money market funds.

Unlike MiCA, the U.S. law does not require issuers to keep a fixed 30% or 60% of reserves in commercial bank deposits. The White House described the permitted backing as liquid assets such as dollars and short-term Treasuries, while the law also requires issuers to publish monthly reserve-composition disclosures.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency proposed implementation rules in February 2026. Its proposal would require issuers under OCC oversight to show that they can convert each type of reserve asset into cash, including through Treasury sales or repurchase agreements.

The ESCB also addressed stablecoins issued through connected entities inside and outside the EU. It supported the European Systemic Risk Board’s position that interchangeable multi-issuance models are not permitted under current MiCA rules and said any future authorization should require safeguards, including an assessment of whether the other country’s regulatory system is equivalent to the EU framework.

To date, you might fairly describe Circle's business model as staying neutral. In other words, USDC is distributed wherever users already are (e.g. Ethereum, Solana, Base, Tron, etc.), and then chains compete for its liquidity.

Alas, that singular era is seemingly over. Today, Circle officially flipped the greenlight switch on Arc, its own Layer 1 blockchain. Now the stablecoin giant will be building its own blockspace instead of only renting it.

If you haven’t been following the Arc story, Circle first announced plans for the EVM-compatible L1 back in August 2025. The chain’s testnet rolled out in October 2025, and nearly one year later mainnet has finally arrived.

— (@)

So what is Arc? At the most basic level, Arc is an EVM-compatible Layer 1, meaning Ethereum apps can largely redeploy there without learning a new programming language or rebuilding from scratch. Under the hood, transactions execute through the Ethereum-compatible Reth client and are finalized by Circle's Malachite consensus engine.

The bigger differences are in what Circle has optimized around it. Gas is paid directly in USDC, transactions reach finality in under a second, and developers can deploy permissionlessly even though the network itself launches with a permissioned set of known validators, including BlackRock, Mastercard, Visa, DTCC, and Standard Chartered. Arc also supports post-quantum wallet signatures from day one.

You can think of it as Circle trying to split the difference between crypto and TradFi: open apps on top with more predictable, institution-friendly infrastructure underneath.

What's actually live? There is already plenty to do beyond simply moving USDC around. More than 100 applications are live, spanning foundational DeFi (Uniswap, Aave, Morpho) as well as memecoins (fomo and Pump.fun), which Circle has been loud about supporting as a basis for growing the chain's culture.

Among what's already running, Circle's CTO, Nikhil Chandhok, made a note of calling out StableFX, an onchain FX system purpose-built for swapping USDC against a growing roster of local stablecoins. That bridge function is central to one of Circle's broader ambitions for Arc: rather than issuing every local stablecoin itself, Circle wants Arc to connect local currencies to USDC liquidity and, ultimately, to one another.

Beyond the tech already live, Circle is also putting unusual emphasis on the layers above the blockchain that make all of this easier to use. There's:

Arc Portal, which acts as the network's front door: users can fund a wallet, swap assets, find apps, access yield opportunities, track their balances, and fund agent wallets.

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Arc Studio, which acts as an AI coding agent that can turn a prompt into application logic, smart contracts, and deployment-ready code.

App Kits, which package common actions like payments, swaps, onramps, bridging, and earning into ready-made SDKs instead of making developers stitch the whole flow together themselves.

Together, these products are meant to make Arc easier to use for more than just crypto-native developers, lowering the friction for users, builders, and eventually agents to interact with the chain.

What's next There is much more to come for the chain overall, particularly in the short term. Chandhok said Arc's two major focuses over its first few months will be 1. privacy and 2. agents.

On privacy, Circle is developing an opt-in Privacy Sector that would let users hide balances and transaction details while selectively revealing information when necessary. The planned system runs private transactions inside trusted execution environments, essentially protected hardware enclaves that keep their contents hidden even from Circle and Arc's validators.

On agents, Circle has already laid some of the groundwork with USDC being the predominant currency used for emergent agent payment protocol, x402, as well as the buildout of its Agent Stack which offers policy-controlled wallets and infrastructure for agents to discover and pay for services.

The next step is making those agents look more like independent economic actors. Circle is working toward verifiable agent identities and histories, reputation systems, and eventually credit, so an agent could prove what work it has done, earn money, hire another agent, or potentially borrow based on its track record.

— (@)

The bigger Arc bet This gets to what may be the most important part of Circle's thesis. Chandhok doesn't want Arc to simply siphon USDC, DeFi, and users away from Ethereum. As he put it, moving existing activity from Ethereum to Arc doesn't actually grow Circle's market.

The bet is instead on creating markets that barely exist today: agents paying and hiring one another, machine-scale credit, global stablecoin FX, tokenized assets reaching new buyers, and institutional activity that would never have moved onto a fully public ledger.

Arc has plenty of competition. Tempo is attacking stablecoin payments and machine commerce from a more payments-infrastructure-heavy angle, while Plasma has pushed further toward the consumer with Plasma One. Arc is taking a broader swing: institutional markets on one side, open crypto on the other, and an especially large bet that autonomous agents become a whole new category of economic participant.

Whether that creates genuinely new activity or just another destination for existing crypto liquidity is now the question. For much more on what Circle thinks comes next, I'd recommend checking out our full conversation with Chandhok. Lots more to dig into.

Aave Brings Institutional RWA Lending to Avalanche@Aave is deploying a dedicated Real-World Asset (RWA) lending hub on @Avax, giving institutions a purpose-built market where they can borrow stablecoins against tokenized assets without having to liquidate their underlying positions. The move marks a significant step in bridging regulated, real-world finance with on-chain credit markets.

The deployment builds on Aave V4, which launched on Avalanche on July 15, 2026 as the first expansion of the protocol's new Hub and Spoke architecture beyond Ethereum. The rollout is backed by up to $15 million in milestone-based incentives from the Avalanche Foundation, tied to growth targets including total value locked and borrowing volumes. Aave V4 has already raised over $20 million in deposits on Avalanche in its first two months, underscoring the network's appetite for the protocol.

Tether's $USAT Steps Into DeFiOne of the more notable aspects of the RWA hub is its choice of dollar liquidity. Tether's $USAT serves as the project's primary stablecoin, marking one of the asset's earliest uses inside a decentralized lending venue. $USAT launched in January 2026 as a federally regulated, dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank and developed in partnership with Tether, built specifically to operate within the US GENIUS Act framework. Unlike USDT, which continues to circulate globally, $USAT is designed for US institutional and regulated-DeFi use cases, with Cantor Fitzgerald serving as its designated reserve custodian.

The combination of Aave's lending infrastructure and $USAT's compliance profile positions the RWA hub as a credible entry point for institutions that need on-chain credit without sacrificing regulatory clarity. Avalanche, which has emerged as a leading network for tokenized real-world assets, provides the underlying settlement layer. The hub is expected to support collateral types including tokenized government bonds, money market funds, and private credit instruments.

Together, the launch signals a broader shift in DeFi strategy: rather than competing for retail liquidity, leading protocols are increasingly building dedicated infrastructure aimed squarely at institutional capital.

Sources:
crypto.news: Aave pushes beyond Ethereum with Avalanche RWA lending expansion
Tether.io: Official USAT launch announcement
LiveBitcoinNews: Aave V4 goes live on Avalanche

Tether’s USDT is now live on Zama, the onchain confidentiality protocol that uses fully homomorphic encryption to shield transaction amounts and balances from prying eyes on public blockchains. The integration converts standard USDT into a confidential version called cUSDT, letting users transact on Ethereum without broadcasting their financial details to the entire network.

What Zama actually does Zama’s protocol uses the ERC-7984 standard to wrap public ERC-20 tokens into confidential versions through a two-transaction process. The wrapped tokens, cUSDT in this case, keep transfer amounts and balances encrypted while preserving the composability and verifiability that make DeFi functional.

As of mid-September 2026, cUSDT has recorded a cumulative shielded volume of $131.3 million. The current shielded total value locked sits at $7.7 million. For a protocol that only executed its first confidential USDT transfer in January 2026, that adoption curve is steep.

Since then, Zama has rolled out a swap protocol that lets users exchange cUSDT with other confidential tokens. On September 15, Zama added 16 confidential Morpho vaults to its roster, including products denominated in cUSDT. Steakhouse Financial backed the expansion. The first of these vaults hit $40 million in TVL within seven weeks of its June 2026 debut.

Why privacy matters for stablecoins Every Ethereum transaction is visible to anyone with a block explorer. For corporate treasuries moving millions, that transparency is a dealbreaker. Competitors can monitor your payment flows. Traders can front-run your large orders. Counterparties can gauge your exact financial position before sitting down to negotiate.

Global stablecoin settlements surpassed $33 trillion in 2025. Fully homomorphic encryption allows computations to be performed directly on encrypted data. The blockchain can process transactions, check balances, and enforce rules without ever decrypting the actual numbers.

The $ZAMA token and ecosystem growth Zama launched its native $ZAMA token in February 2026 through a Dutch auction that shielded over $121 million in value. The token captures protocol fees from confidential transactions and acts as a staking asset for network operators who run the encryption infrastructure. Listings on prominent exchanges followed the auction, and Revolut integrated $ZAMA, giving the token exposure to the fintech platform’s retail user base.

The 16 new Morpho vaults mean that yield-seeking capital can now earn returns without exposing position sizes or strategies to the public. Adding confidential vaults on Morpho, the decentralized lending protocol, extends the ecosystem into institutional DeFi strategies.

What to watch from here The $7.7 million in shielded TVL is respectable for a protocol less than a year into live operations. Zama’s approach of wrapping regulated stablecoins like USDT, rather than creating anonymous native currencies, positions it more favorably on the compliance spectrum. Tether itself has been cooperating with law enforcement agencies, and a confidential wrapper that still allows authorized audits could thread the needle between privacy and regulatory acceptability.

The $131.3 million in cumulative shielded volume demonstrates real usage, not just speculative token activity.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

The US Department of Justice has credited Tether for its proactive assistance in a major enforcement action targeting Xinbi Guarantee, a global network allegedly helping facilitate crypto fraud, money laundering and scam operations, the company said in a Sept. 11 statement.

The DOJ’s Scam Center Strike Force said more than $52 million in crypto was restrained as part of the action. Authorities seized two Xinbi wallets with about $12 million in vendor payments and moved to restrain 47 additional wallets suspected of involvement in money laundering.

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Authorities said Xinbi operated on Telegram and linked scam operators with vendors offering services such as money laundering, fraudulent investment websites and the recruitment of trafficking victims for scam compounds. Investigators also traced funds belonging to US victims to vendors connected to the network.

Tether said it has assisted more than 340 law enforcement agencies across 67 countries in more than 2,800 cases. Its efforts have contributed to the freezing of more than $5 billion in assets linked to illicit activity, including over $2.5 billion through cooperation with US authorities.

Tether’s recent cooperation with US authorities has included enforcement actions involving roughly $225 million in USDT tied to a human trafficking and romance scam syndicate, nearly $61 million linked to a crypto investment fraud scheme and more than $344 million frozen in coordination with OFAC and US law enforcement.

Tether pledges to continue to work with US and international law enforcement agencies to combat the illicit use of USDT and assist in recovering assets linked to criminal activity.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Iran’s central bank has officially authorized companies in the country to use Bitcoin and USDT for international trade. This move follows recent efforts by regulators to ease foreign exchange restrictions, enabling commercial entities to channel export revenues through domestic cryptocurrency platforms.

Official support and practical changesA senior business figure affiliated with government circles confirmed that the central bank no longer questions how funds are transferred, signaling an acceptance of digital assets for settling export payments. Receiving foreign income via cryptocurrency has become routine for Iranian exporters.

The banking authority has promoted the repatriation of capital held overseas, leveraging crypto platforms within Iran’s borders. This policy shift aims to support domestic companies amid ongoing economic sanctions and currency volatility.

Rising crypto activity and mining capacityDuring 2025, digital asset transactions totaling $10 billion passed through Iranian networks. Elliptic, a blockchain intelligence firm, reported that Iran accounted for about 4.5% of global Bitcoin mining capacity.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps utilizes government-subsidized electricity for mining operations, transforming energy resources into financial assets less susceptible to international restrictions. Local analysts claim this strategy helps the country counter the impact of sanctions.

Elliptic estimated Iran’s digital asset infrastructure at $7.8 billion in the past year. Blockchain addresses associated with the Revolutionary Guard accounted for nearly half of all recorded transactions in the last quarter of 2025.

Approximately $4.18 billion in digital assets left Iran through 2025, a 70% increase over the previous year. Most of these funds moved through the Nobitex platform, which has handled around $3.84 billion in transfers since 2019.

State interventions and market responsesConfidential records reviewed by Elliptic revealed that Iran’s central bank acquired $507 million in USDT. Authorities deployed these reserves to manage currency volatility and stabilize the rial, which has lost nearly 90% of its value amid ongoing sanctions and inflation.

As blockchain-based platforms reshape capital flows, investors are also adopting new infrastructure. While traditional markets rely on complex brokers, a major transition is underway as institutions and retail participants choose Web3 solutions. Platforms such as 1stepSwap allow users to hold shares of major American companies, gold, and silver directly in their crypto wallets. Tokenizing real-world assets and finding the best prices automatically, these platforms remove intermediaries from the process.

Cryptocurrency transactions totaling $10 billion moved through Iranian networks in 2025, while Elliptic calculates Iran’s share of global Bitcoin mining at 4.5%—making it a significant regional player in the sector.

US actions and sanctions escalationIn 2026, American authorities increased enforcement measures targeting Iranian crypto activity. In April, Operation Economic Fury led to the seizure of $344 million in USDT from a Tron wallet linked to Iran.

By June, the US Treasury had sanctioned four Iranian trading platforms: Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex. Nobitex alone manages around half of Iran’s crypto transactions and reports 11 million registered users.

OFAC updated its sanctions list in July, adding four central bank-related crypto wallets holding $165 million in stablecoins. Tether disabled access to $131 million connected to these wallets after the changes.

In August, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen classified digital assets as a sanctionable sector for Iran. US officials also targeted a Ukrainian intermediary accused of facilitating over $100 million in crypto-based petroleum deals for the Revolutionary Guard.

Iran reportedly uses cryptocurrency channels not only for oil sales and military equipment payments, but also for collecting transit fees from vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Domestic data shows roughly 20,000 individuals and companies still have not returned 94 billion euros in export earnings to the country, and an additional $100 billion remains undeclared inside Iran.

US authorities continue to collaborate with blockchain analytics firms like Chainalysis and Elliptic in efforts to identify, freeze, or seize digital wallets linked to sanctioned Iranian entities. Altogether, US enforcement actions have immobilized or confiscated more than $1 billion in Iranian crypto holdings during 2026.

Tether and Fasanara Capital Launch $400 Million Private Credit Fund to Expand Stablecoin-Enabled Real-Economy Lending

9 September 2026 – Tether, the largest company in the digital asset industry, and Fasanara Capital, a leading specialist asset manager in technology-enabled private credit, today announced the launch of StableFund, a Tether-Fasanara Lending Fund. The jointly sponsored evergreen private credit vehicle is anchored by $400 million in co-investment across both sponsors and targets up to $3 billion in third-party institutional capital.

The launch comes as private credit has grown into an approximately $3 trillion global market and is projected to reach $5 trillion by 2029, reflecting increasing demand for alternative sources of financing and institutional exposure to real-economy lending opportunities.

The fund is designed to direct institutional capital toward small and medium-sized businesses, which face a global financing gap estimated at $5.7 trillion. Fasanara will serve as Investment Manager, deploying capital through its global fintech lending network into short-duration, asset-backed credit strategies. Tether will be a co-sponsor, acting as Originator and Advisor, sourcing USD₮-linked financing opportunities and providing the stablecoin settlement infrastructure, including on/off-ramp connectivity and treasury rail integration, that enables capital to move across borders more efficiently than traditional systems allow.

The structure embeds USD₮ into SME and consumer lending flows across fintech platforms operating in more than 60 countries, targeting borrowers that conventional funding channels have historically underserved.

The initiative builds on Tether’s global stablecoin infrastructure, which already plays a central role in cross-border settlement and digital liquidity, and extends its application to private credit markets, where speed, capital efficiency, and global reach are increasingly critical. Combined with Fasanara’s established real-economy lending platform, underwriting expertise, and proprietary technology, the fund is designed to support a stablecoin-enabled private credit strategy focused on short-duration, asset-backed lending across global fintech origination channels.

At its core, the initiative reflects Tether’s continued expansion of digital asset infrastructure beyond trading and payments into real-world financial systems that require fast, global, and frictionless capital movement. It supports the continued expansion of real-economy lending capacity through fintech platforms that have demonstrated strong reach into underserved markets but remain constrained by traditional funding and settlement structures.

“USD₮ was built to be money that works everywhere, across borders, around the clock, without friction. Through this fund, Tether is playing the role it is best positioned to play, sourcing USD₮-linked financing opportunities and providing the stablecoin infrastructure that enables seamless cross-border lending. Together with Fasanara, we are turning Tether’s origination network into a direct channel for capital to flow to the businesses and communities that need it most,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether.

“We have spent years building the proprietary technology, the origination relationships, and the underwriting discipline to direct institutional capital to borrowers that traditional finance systematically underserves. Tether brings something unique to that equation: the largest stablecoin network in the world, a crypto-native investor base with significant capital capacity, and USD₮ rails that extend the reach of credit beyond anything conventional funding structures can achieve. Together, we are improving how capital is deployed into real-economy lending markets and enabling more efficient cross-border credit flows,” said Francesco Filia, CEO of Fasanara Capital.

The Fasanara–Tether Lending Fund reflects growing institutional recognition of stablecoin infrastructure as a meaningful component of global financial plumbing, particularly in areas where traditional settlement systems are slower or more fragmented. The structure is designed as an evergreen vehicle with the flexibility to scale alongside third-party institutional participation.

For more information, contact [email protected]

About Fasanara Capital

Fasanara Capital is a London-based specialist asset manager with over $6 billion AUM, focused on technology-enabled private credit and asset-based finance. The firm originates across more than 60 countries through partnerships with leading fintech lenders, deploying capital into SME loans, consumer credit, trade receivables, and supply chain finance. Fasanara’s proprietary technology platform provides institutional investors with diversified, low-volatility private credit exposure while directing capital to the underserved borrowers who need it most. Fasanara is a recognised leader in fintech-enabled financial inclusion, in addition to running one of the oldest and largest digital assets liquidity providers globally. www.fasanara.com

For investor queries: [email protected] For media queries on Fasanara: [email protected]

Tether has frozen $39.27 million worth of USDT held in 10 TRON addresses linked to Xinbi Guarantee, as reported by blockchain-analysis firm MistTrack. The move focuses attention on the use of stablecoins in suspected illicit financial transactions and the role stablecoin issuers play in restricting asset movement.

Addresses Linked to Telegram-Based Escrow NetworkMistTrack stated that its investigation traced the TRON addresses through blockchain activity and on-chain labeling tied to Xinbi Guarantee. Xinbi Guarantee is understood to operate as a Telegram-based escrow network, allegedly facilitating various financial arrangements.

The frozen USDT addresses collectively held $39,273,713 in funds at the time of the action. One of these addresses reportedly contained over $10 million in USDT when the freeze was implemented. Despite the large sum, Tether clarified that the measure did not disrupt the market, as the dollar peg of USDT remained stable at $0.9998 on September 9.

Tether did not disclose the detailed reasons for the freeze or whether it arose due to a law enforcement request. MistTrack emphasized that the presence of Xinbi Guarantee on international regulatory radars, alongside blockchain evidence, provided grounds for the freeze.

Mini dictionary: Xinbi Guarantee, a Telegram-based escrow service, is alleged to facilitate financial transfers using cryptocurrencies and has come under international scrutiny for possible connections to illicit activity.

Global Regulatory Pressure IncreasesXinbi Guarantee drew international attention after the UK imposed an asset freeze on Xinbi Company Limited in March 2026. Authorities linked Xinbi to two TRON wallet addresses suspected of involvement in scams and human rights violations, with British regulators citing connections to fraudulent activity and international regulation emerging as a response.

The latest Tether freeze follows a similar measure concerning wallets associated with Huione Guarantee, another Telegram-based escrow group. These developments underscore the central role that stablecoin issuers can play in limiting the use of their tokens for suspicious transactions, even though the blockchains themselves remain operational and unaffected.

Impact on TRON and Stablecoin OperationsTRON, an open-source blockchain known for low transaction fees and fast transfers, remains one of the leading networks hosting USDT transactions worldwide. USDT is now widely used for dollar-denominated cross-border payments and crypto trading, and its stability remains largely unaffected by actions involving particular wallets.

The freezing of USDT in specific addresses does not impact the usability or liquidity of USDT held by the general public. The stablecoin continued trading close to its dollar peg, and broader market activity for USDT showed no disruption following the latest freeze.

EventAffected USDTDateBlockchainNotable DetailsXinbi freeze$39.27 millionSeptember 2026TRON10 addressesHuione freezeUndisclosedEarlier in 2026TRONEscrow network-linkedTether’s ability to freeze assets in response to external pressure illustrates the practical power centralized stablecoin issuers hold over the movement of digital dollars, which remains a controversial topic within the global crypto landscape.

Tether continues to emphasize that freezing certain addresses has no effect on regular users and does not threaten USDT’s market stability or deny access to compliant holders.

Orionx, a Chilean crypto exchange backed by USDt stablecoin issuer Tether, is shutting down after uncovering a multimillion-dollar issue linked to asset custody.

The exchange said it began a permanent closure process after a forensic audit found more than $7 million in custodial assets had moved to wallets it did not manage, according to a company announcement shared on X on Thursday.

“Our sole priority now is to return as much of our clients’ assets as possible,” Orionx said, adding that withdrawals are temporarily suspended.

The closure comes just 15 months after Tether led Orionx’s Series A as part of its push to expand digital asset adoption in Latin America.

Orionx leaves timing of $7 million transfers unclearOrionx’s post did not specify when the more than $7 million in transfers occurred or how the discrepancy was initially uncovered.

As part of its efforts to comply with Chile’s Fintech Law, Orionx conducted a review of its operations in 2025 and brought in financial professionals, according to the major Chilean newspaper La Tercera, citing the company’s criminal complaint.

On Aug. 27, chief operating officer Thomas Mac Millan detected a “significant mismatch” between balances recorded in Orionx’s systems and assets actually held in custody, according to the complaint.

An internal review followed, and Orionx later commissioned an external forensic audit that compared its records with data verifiable onchain. The audit found that balances recorded in Orionx’s systems exceeded the assets held at its custody addresses for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP and Polygon (POL).

The criminal complaint reportedly alleges that assets were transferred out of Orionx’s custody between 2018 and 2021, including to accounts on other crypto platforms.

Orionx accuses co-founders, who deny wrongdoingOrionx said it filed a criminal complaint on Wednesday against former executives Roberto Zibert and Joaquín Díaz, both co-founders who allegedly had access to the company’s crypto custody systems.

The complaint alleges that an account associated with Díaz received more than $1.5 million across 14 transfers, while another wallet allegedly received 187 Ether, more than 4.1 million USDt (USDT) and 200,000 USDC from Orionx, La Tercera reported.

Former executive and Orionx co-founder Roberto Zibert. Source: LinkedIn

Zibert and Díaz denied the allegations, saying they never acted against customers’ interests and that the cause of Orionx’s asset shortfall remains unclear.

Tether backed Orionx in 2025Founded in Chile in 2017, Orionx grew from a retail crypto exchange into a platform offering crypto payment and financial services in Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico.

Tether invested in Orionx in June 2025, exclusively leading the exchange’s Series A funding round, according to an archived version of Tether’s announcement. The announcement is no longer available on Tether’s website.

Cointelegraph contacted Tether and Orionx for comment but had not received a response by publication.

Magazine: Tether sued over $42M in frozen coins, 6,600 students get crypto loans: Asia Express

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

A planned dollar stablecoin backed by 21 global financial institutions will begin with regulatory resources, corporate relationships, and international payment connections. Four industry executives told crypto.news, however, that institutional backing will not guarantee adoption unless the token can match the liquidity, accessibility and portability already offered by USDT and USDC.

Summary

The 21-member consortium plans to launch its dollar stablecoin during the first half of 2027. Experts said established banking relationships could help the token gain early institutional distribution. Interoperability, wallet support, and reliable redemption will determine whether it circulates beyond member banks. The consortium must identify who carries legal responsibility for reserves, redemptions, and transaction failures. USDT and USDC could lose market share even as bank-issued tokens expand the overall stablecoin market. The consortium committed to forming a new stablecoin company during the second half of 2026, subject to closing conditions. Its members include Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, UBS, and other financial institutions across North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

The unnamed venture intends to launch a US dollar-denominated stablecoin during the first half of 2027. It may later introduce stablecoins tied to other G7 currencies, with a euro-denominated token listed as its first expansion priority.

The consortium has not disclosed the token’s name, supported blockchains, reserve custodian, governance model, or redemption process. Those details could determine whether the product becomes a widely used payment instrument or remains primarily a settlement token within the institutions’ existing networks.

21-bank stablecoin starts with a distribution advantage Utkarsh Ahuja, founder and managing partner at Moon Pursuit Capital, told crypto.news that the consortium starts with relationships that normally take new financial products years to develop.

The participating institutions already serve corporate treasury departments, process international payments, and operate compliance systems across several jurisdictions. According to Ahuja, those connections could make it easier to introduce the stablecoin into existing corporate workflows, particularly for cross-border settlement.

“The banks start with something that normally takes a financial product years to build: distribution into the companies that actually move very large amounts of money.”

Ahuja cautioned that established relationships do not provide the portability that USDT and USDC have built across exchanges, wallets, blockchains, and market makers. The consortium could bring corporate clients to the token, he said, but convincing those clients to use it outside the participating banks’ network will be more difficult.

Jerald David, CEO of Lynq Network, said the initiative has both offensive and defensive motives. It could open new blockchain payment revenue for the institutions while protecting payment activity and commercial balances from migrating to non-bank stablecoin issuers.

Stablecoin issuers can earn income from the assets held against circulating tokens, including short-term government debt. When deposits move from banks into stablecoins, part of the balance and its associated economics can move with them.

David said a shared token would allow the institutions to enter blockchain payments through a framework over which they retain greater control. However, he warned that scale alone would not make the proposed token more attractive than established alternatives.

USDT and USDC currently benefit from years of integration. A recent crypto.news analysis of stablecoin distribution placed the wider market at approximately $316 billion in mid-2026, with USDT accounting for about $187 billion and USDC representing roughly $75 billion.

Interoperability will decide whether the token circulates David described issuance as the easier part of the project. Businesses will also need reliable ways to move between the consortium’s stablecoin, existing stablecoins, tokenized deposits and conventional bank accounts.

“Interoperability will be more important than issuance,” David said.

“If capital can enter the token easily but cannot move out or across networks just as efficiently, the consortium risks creating another isolated pool of liquidity.”

Such interoperability would require dependable minting and redemption, custody arrangements, market makers, and settlement infrastructure connecting different forms of digital and conventional money. An institution receiving the new token must be able to redeem it for dollars or exchange it without facing long delays, high spreads, or limited trading depth.

Alvin Kan, chief operating officer of Bitget Wallet, told crypto.news that self-custodial wallets would examine the token’s entire user journey before supporting it. Relevant functions include holding, transferring, swapping, and spending the stablecoin.

Wallet providers would need audited smart contracts, transparent issuance and redemption processes, and consistent technical standards across every supported blockchain, according to Kan. They would also need to know whether tokens are issued natively on each network or transferred through bridges.

Kan said native mint-and-burn systems or coordinated cross-chain issuance would generally be preferable to wrapped assets because they could reduce bridge risks and prevent liquidity from being split among several representations of the same stablecoin.

Wallets could use intent-based routing and liquidity aggregation to shield users from some of that complexity. However, Kan said wallets cannot eliminate fragmentation without cooperation from issuers, banks, and liquidity providers.

“Ultimately, interoperability will matter more than how many bank tokens get issued. The winning infrastructure will make multiple tokens feel like one connected financial system.”

Gas abstraction could remove another obstacle. Users may be less willing to adopt a dollar stablecoin if they must first acquire a separate blockchain token to pay network fees whenever they transfer or spend it.

The same problem applies to identity verification. Kan said reusable credentials or privacy-preserving attestations could allow users to demonstrate that they have completed required checks without repeating the full process for every issuer. Different regulatory requirements would still apply across jurisdictions, meaning one universal identity credential is unlikely to resolve every compliance issue.

Bank backing does not guarantee stablecoin adoption Waseem Salim, CEO of Valdora, told crypto.news that an established issuer can provide initial trust, but utility determines whether people continue to hold and use a stablecoin.

Société Générale offers an example of the difference between institutional backing and circulation. Its digital asset subsidiary launched USD CoinVertible on Ethereum and Solana in 2025. Despite its connection to a major global bank, official SG-FORGE data showed approximately $12.55 million of the stablecoin in circulation as of Sept. 4.

“A strong name helps, but people won’t adopt a stablecoin just because there’s a bank behind it,” Salim said. “They need a reason to actually use and hold it.”

According to Salim, users will consider whether the token works with their existing wallets and preferred networks, whether sufficient liquidity is available, and how easily they can redeem it. They will also examine what they can do after acquiring it.

Possible advantages include cheaper cross-border settlement, direct integration with corporate bank accounts, and access to tokenized financial products. Those benefits would need to be substantial enough to compete with USDT and USDC integrations and the familiarity of conventional deposits.

Kan similarly described adoption as utility-driven. Institutional reputation could attract users who value regulated redemption and established banking relationships, but the token would need to work across payments, swaps, merchant transactions and local cash-out services.

The last step could prove decisive. A stablecoin may move between blockchains within seconds, but Kan said much of that advantage disappears if recipients face high costs when converting it into reais, rupees or pesos.

The World Bank’s latest remittance pricing data puts the average cost of sending money internationally at 6.36% of the transferred amount. Bank-backed stablecoins could compete in those corridors if they reduce the complete delivered cost, including foreign-exchange spreads, network fees, redemption charges and local payout expenses.

Domestic conditions will also affect adoption. Kan said stablecoins must offer more than fast local transfers in markets already served by systems such as India’s UPI, Brazil’s Pix and SEPA Instant in Europe. Their stronger use cases in those regions may involve international commerce, multi-currency access and digital-asset settlement.

Reserves, redemption and liability will test trust The consortium’s size creates another question: which entity will ultimately stand behind the token?

David said businesses should not have to determine which of the 21 participating institutions is responsible when a redemption fails. He called for one clearly identified legal issuer, segregated and independently verified reserves, and defined obligations for the issuer, participating institutions, and infrastructure providers.

“Shared distribution is an advantage. Shared liability is not,” David said.

The consortium has said it intends to comply with the US GENIUS Act and the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets framework where applicable. The GENIUS Act established requirements covering one-to-one reserves, disclosures, redemption, and permitted issuers, although US regulators were still completing implementation rules during 2026.

Kan said wallets would also require information about freezing powers, transfer restrictions, sanctions enforcement, and how compliance responsibilities are divided among the issuer, wallet, and fiat service providers. Such controls become more complex when tokens circulate across public blockchains and national borders.

Redemption risks could grow if the stablecoin becomes a gateway into tokenized investments. Salim warned that users must understand that yield does not appear merely because an asset is held onchain.

If returns come from business lending, government securities, or market strategies, platforms should identify the underlying source, asset manager, custodian, and counterparties. They should also explain how quickly the assets can be sold and what happens if a borrower defaults.

Salim said those arrangements differ from interest earned on a bank deposit because the legal relationship, custody model, liquidity, and protections may not be the same.

Platforms could also create a mismatch if users expect immediate stablecoin withdrawals while the underlying capital is invested in assets that trade during limited hours or take longer to sell. Salim said providers may need liquid reserves, staggered maturities, redemption windows, or withdrawal queues aligned with the underlying assets.

USDT and USDC may face competition as the market expands Ahuja expects a bank-issued dollar stablecoin to place more immediate pressure on USDC in institutional markets where Circle and major banks could compete for the same corporate balances.

If companies transfer balances into the new stablecoin, the reserves and income generated from those assets would move with them. However, Ahuja said USDT occupies a different position because much of its demand comes from markets where access to US banking services remains limited or inefficient.

The consortium’s Western banking relationships would not automatically replicate Tether’s reach in those regions. USDT is widely used on exchanges and in markets where people seek access to dollars outside conventional banking channels.

Competition may also enlarge the market rather than redistribute a fixed amount of stablecoin activity. Banks could bring corporate transactions onchain that currently do not use USDT, USDC, or any public blockchain.

Ahuja said Tether and Circle could therefore lose percentage share while their circulation and transaction volumes continue growing. He recommended examining the composition of stablecoin activity rather than relying solely on market-share figures.

The effects could extend beyond the issuers. A market containing bank stablecoins, tokenized deposits, USDT, USDC, and tokens tied to other currencies would increase demand for companies connecting those pools.

Ahuja identified liquidity providers, payment infrastructure, custody services, compliance tools, and blockchain networks as potential beneficiaries. Tokenized-asset platforms could also gain if regulated digital cash allows funds and securities to settle on the same infrastructure.

David said the consortium’s traction should ultimately be measured through active business users, recurring settlement, redemption performance during market stress, and acceptance outside the 21 participating institutions. Large transaction volumes alone could reflect a small group of members moving capital among themselves.

The consortium’s banking relationships could put its token in front of corporate users quickly. The four executives nevertheless agreed that liquidity, interoperability and external acceptance, not the number of institutions behind it, will determine whether the stablecoin becomes a genuine rival to USDT and USDC.

Tether’s USDT ecosystem has expanded to Stellar. This gives users on the payments-focused blockchain access to more than $180 billion in USDT liquidity through USDT0.

USDT0 will now connect Stellar to Tether’s broader stablecoin liquidity. The integration uses LayerZero’s OFT interoperability standard. 

Stellar was originally designed around moving digital assets and cross-border payments. 

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The foundation has placed a huge focus on stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets and institutional infrastructure. These have become the key drivers of network activity. 

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There have been several stablecoins initiatives spearheaded by Stellar this year. In June, for instance, MoneyGram launched MGUSD, a dollar-denominated stablecoin built on Stellar. 

Stellar's rather formidable ecosystem includes Circle’s USDC, Franklin Templeton’s BENJI and other stablecoin and asset-issuance projects.

Expanding liquidity stack Stellar said stablecoin payment volume reached $5.5 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up 72% from a year earlier. At the same time, tokenized real-world assets on the network surpassed $2 billion shortly after the quarter ended.

USDT0 will let Stellar users access the same USDT liquidity available on other connected networks. That could make the network more attractive to exchanges, wallets, and other segments of the industry. 

Tether is dominant in many emerging markets, including parts of Latin America, Africa and Asia-Pacific. In these regions, stablecoins are being adopted en masse for savings, remittances and dollar-denominated payments. USDT0 is initially available through wallets, exchanges and applications including Kraken, Freighter, Lobstr, Bitget, Fireblocks, Ramp Network and SushiSwap. Additional integrations are expected to take place in the future. 

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has challenged the Bank for International Settlements’ preference for tokenized bank deposits, arguing that fully reserved stablecoins give users a stronger alternative to money held under fractional reserve banking.

Summary

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino challenged the BIS preference for tokenized bank deposits, arguing that fully reserved stablecoins offer users a safer alternative. BIS chief Pablo Hernández de Cos said stablecoins face problems with redeemability, interoperability, financial integrity and monetary sovereignty. Ardoino questioned why savers would keep money in fractional reserve products when stablecoins can hold reserves in liquid assets such as U.S. Treasuries. The debate has reached U.S. lawmakers as banking groups warn that stablecoin rewards could pull deposits from banks and reduce funds available for lending. The Bank for International Settlements laid out the case for tokenized deposits on Aug. 28, when General Manager Pablo Hernández de Cos told the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium that stablecoins still fall short of several properties needed to function as money at scale. Ardoino responded by questioning why savers would choose bank deposits when stablecoins can hold reserves in highly liquid assets such as U.S. Treasuries.

“BIS is rightfully worried about the fact that stablecoins are exposing the emperor without clothes,” Ardoino said. “Why someone should choose to put his savings into a fractional reserve product while stablecoins are fully reserved?”

Tether CEO challenges the BIS case for tokenized deposits Hernández de Cos argued that stablecoins face problems with redeemability at par, interoperability and financial integrity, while their use outside the United States can create concerns over monetary sovereignty and digital dollarization.

In the BIS model, tokenized deposits remain liabilities of commercial banks and settle through central bank accounts. De Cos said this structure preserves the “singleness” of money because different bank liabilities remain redeemable at par through central bank settlement.

Stablecoins work differently. A user holding USDT who needs to pay someone accepting only USDC may first need to exchange one token for the other in a secondary market, where prices can deviate from their dollar pegs, particularly during periods of stress.

Public blockchains create another concern for the BIS. Stablecoins can circulate across multiple networks and through self-custody wallets, while moving the same asset between chains can require bridges or other infrastructure. De Cos argued that this structure creates interoperability problems and makes consistent enforcement of anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing controls more difficult.

Ardoino focused his response on the reserve structure behind the two forms of digital money. The Tether executive argued that stablecoins can be backed almost entirely by liquid reserves, including U.S. government debt, while commercial banks operate under a fractional reserve system in which only part of their liabilities are held in liquid assets.

His comments put the reserve question at the center of a debate that has increasingly divided stablecoin issuers and the banking sector as both compete to move fiat-denominated money onto blockchain networks.

Crypto.news recently examined how a tokenized bank deposit remains on the issuing bank’s balance sheet even after being represented on a blockchain. Unlike stablecoins, customer funds do not move into a separate reserve portfolio and can remain available to support the bank’s lending operations.

Tokenized deposits are moving beyond pilot programs Banks have started building infrastructure around that model as stablecoins take a larger role in digital payments.

JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo are developing a shared deposit token network through The Clearing House, with a launch targeted for the first half of 2027. The planned system would initially give multinational companies access to programmable treasury and cross-border payment services.

SWIFT has pursued a similar route. In July, the financial messaging network launched a  blockchain-based shared ledger with 17 major banks, including Citi, HSBC, UBS and BNP Paribas. The system was designed around tokenized bank deposits for round-the-clock cross-border payments.

Custodia Bank and Vantage Bank have taken a different approach by combining the two structures. Their dual-purpose token model is designed to operate as a bank deposit while inside the Hazel network and function as a stablecoin when transferred outside it. The Ethereum-based system has been under testing ahead of a planned fourth-quarter 2026 rollout.

Despite supporting tokenized deposits, Hernández de Cos acknowledged that the model has its own unresolved problems. No multi-bank or cross-jurisdictional ecosystem currently issues tokenized deposits through a fully interoperable framework, he said. Existing systems remain concentrated on permissioned platforms, while some designs resemble bank-issued stablecoins.

The BIS chief said stablecoins and tokenized deposits could ultimately coexist, but argued that tokenized deposits should handle most everyday payments while stablecoins serve more specialized functions.

Stablecoin growth raises the deposit flight question Ardoino’s criticism comes as the competition for deposits has become part of the U.S. debate over crypto market structure.

Banking groups have repeatedly pushed lawmakers to tighten stablecoin reward provisions in the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. In July, the American Bankers Association, Independent Community Bankers of America and 76 state banking associations urged Senate leaders to revise Section 404 before the legislation reached the Senate floor.

The groups argued that allowing crypto platforms to provide certain rewards on stablecoin balances could encourage customers to move funds out of traditional bank accounts. Under that argument, deposit losses could leave community banks with less funding available for lending.

Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser repeated the concern in August while supporting passage of the CLARITY Act. Fraser warned that stablecoin rewards could draw deposits away from banks and affect their ability to extend credit.

The dispute partly traces back to the GENIUS Act, which prevents payment stablecoin issuers from directly paying interest or yield to holders. Crypto exchanges and other service providers can still offer some rewards depending on how their programs are structured, leaving lawmakers and banking groups divided over where the restrictions should apply.

Hernández de Cos raised a similar funding issue at Jackson Hole. Stablecoin issuers can increase demand for government debt by placing reserves into Treasury securities, potentially lowering sovereign borrowing costs, he said. At the same time, money leaving commercial bank deposits could increase bank funding costs and eventually raise borrowing costs for households and companies.

Ardoino presented the same movement of funds from the opposite perspective.

“What happens to financial system if people start realizing that stablecoins are safer and move their savings into the better asset class?” he said. “We’re in the Find Out phase.”

USDT remains the largest stablecoin by circulation and has developed a substantial user base outside the United States. Ardoino has repeatedly positioned the token as a dollar-based savings and payments product for markets where access to U.S. dollars or conventional banking services can be limited.

Tether has pursued that market through payment and remittance investments, including its May investment in cross-border platform LemFi, which serves users across African and Asian remittance corridors.

Ardoino said some economies now rely heavily on USDT for both domestic and foreign commerce, while the BIS has warned that increasing use of dollar-denominated stablecoins outside the United States could weaken monetary policy transmission and increase dependence on external monetary conditions.

Revolut has begun rolling out EURR, a euro-pegged stablecoin, to eligible customers in Denmark, Poland and Portugal, with a wider rollout across the European Economic Area planned later this year. The token is Revolut's first stablecoin and is designed to hold a fixed value of €1.

EURR is issued by Bridge Building S.A., the Luxembourg-based entity of Stripe-owned stablecoin infrastructure firm Bridge, which Stripe acquired for $1.1 billion in February 2025. Bridge Building holds an Electronic Money Institution licence and a Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) authorisation from Luxembourg's CSSF, giving it the legal standing to issue e-money tokens across the EEA. Revolut Digital Assets Europe Ltd, the fintech's regulated crypto arm, distributes the token under its own MiCA licence from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission.

Revolut said in its announcement that EURR gives its customer base an on-chain option denominated in euros rather than dollars, since most stablecoins in circulation are pegged to the US currency. The token launches on Ethereum, with support for additional blockchain networks and external wallet transfers to follow. Revolut framed the launch as the first step in a broader stablecoin strategy, with tokens tied to other currencies already in development through separate regulatory pathways. It did not name which currencies.

The timing is not incidental. Revolut is removing Tether's USDt from its European retail offering by August 31, completing a phased withdrawal that began in July with a purchase freeze and continued through a deposit block later that month. Tether has not sought MiCA authorisation, and MiCA's reserve rules effectively force platforms operating in the EEA to delist stablecoins that lack a licensed issuer. Revolut is one of the last major European platforms to complete that transition, following exchanges including Coinbase, Crypto.com, Kraken and OKX, which removed or restricted USDt trading pairs over the preceding eighteen months.

EURR's launch is significant less for the token itself than for what it represents about the structure of Europe's stablecoin market. Dollar-pegged stablecoins still account for the overwhelming majority of global stablecoin supply, and euro-denominated tokens remain a small fraction of the sector even as MiCA has forced issuers to seek local authorisation. Revolut is entering a field that already includes Circle, Banking Circle and AllUnity, alongside Qivalis, a euro stablecoin backed by a consortium of 37 European banks. What distinguishes Revolut is distribution. It can place EURR directly in front of more than 80 million existing customers who already hold euro balances in its app, instead of building a token that has to find crypto-native users on its own.

That distribution advantage is the real story. A regulated euro stablecoin embedded inside a mainstream banking app, sold through a retail interface rather than a crypto exchange, tests whether stablecoins can move from being a trading instrument into becoming an everyday payments and settlement tool in Europe. Revolut's own framing points toward cross-border transfers, business payments and settlement as the intended use cases beyond simple crypto trading. Whether EURR can build meaningful liquidity against a market still dominated by dollar tokens will depend on how quickly Revolut expands the rollout beyond its initial three markets.

Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, plans to accept Ethereum and Tether alongside Bitcoin as loan collateral once Russian regulators permit their public circulation, according to TASS.

The bank is preparing to offer crypto-backed loans to corporate clients after successfully testing the model with mining firm AO Intelion Data last year. It is also working on crypto custody services as digital assets take on a larger role in Russia’s financial system and cross-border trade.

Anatoly Popov, deputy chairman of Sberbank’s management board, said the bank is prepared to adapt its existing products once the legislation comes fully into force.

Popov said Sberbank had anticipated the regulatory changes and already gained practical experience working with crypto. The bank plans to gradually expand its digital-asset products under the new rules, including lending secured by crypto holdings.

Bitcoin will be part of the bank’s collateral offering, while Ethereum and Tether could be added in the future. Popov said those assets would become eligible after the Bank of Russia authorizes them for public circulation and the remaining provisions of the new regulation take effect.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said on Aug. 23 that several developing economies increasingly rely on USDT for domestic commerce, international trade and dollar denominated savings.

Summary

Ardoino said USDT use is rising across Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia and Turkey amid monetary instability. Users increasingly hold USDT as digital dollars when local currencies weaken or cash dollars become scarce. Chainalysis ranked Venezuela eighteenth, Turkey fourteenth and Argentina twentieth for global crypto adoption in 2025. Chainalysis measured nearly $1.5T in Latin American crypto activity from July 2022 through June 2025. Tether said its technology served more than 570 million users worldwide as of March 2026. “The economies of several developing countries rely heavily on USDT, both for domestic and foreign trade,” Ardoino wrote in a post. He said Tether’s financial inclusion mission was becoming more important.

Ardoino cited Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia and Turkey as markets where people use the stablecoin in response to inflation, currency depreciation, limited access to dollars and restrictions within conventional financial systems.

His statement describes Tether’s view of adoption. No single public dataset measures how dependent entire national economies are on USDT. Independent blockchain research, central bank data and exchange activity nevertheless support the broader conclusion that dollar stablecoins have gained traction in those markets.

Currency instability is supporting USDT adoption USDT is designed to track the U.S. dollar, allowing users to obtain digital dollar exposure without holding a U.S. bank account. It can move between compatible wallets and exchanges at any time, although conversion options, costs and regulations vary by country.

The product can appeal to users whose local currencies are losing purchasing power. It also provides an alternative when physical dollars are scarce or cross border bank transfers are expensive and slow.

Turkey continued to face elevated inflation despite progress under its disinflation program. Consumer inflation fell from 49.4% in September 2024 to 30.9% in December 2025, according to an International Monetary Fund review. The IMF projected inflation of 23% at the end of 2026.

Argentina has also continued addressing inflation and foreign exchange pressures. The IMF reported that monthly inflation reached 3.4% in March 2026 following currency depreciation and weaker demand for pesos.

Stablecoin demand extends beyond those two markets. Chainalysis ranked Turkey 14th, Venezuela 18th and Argentina 20th in its 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index. When adjusted for population, Venezuela ranked ninth worldwide.

Venezuela and Bolivia show commercial use cases In Venezuela, local businesses reportedly use USDT for retail payments and some import and export settlements. The stablecoin operates alongside bolivars, physical dollars and other digital assets within what local observers describe as a hybrid currency economy.

Chainalysis estimated that Venezuela received $44.6 billion in cryptocurrency value between July 2022 and June 2025. The figure covers all tracked crypto assets and does not represent USDT alone.

Bolivia provides a clearer official signal. The Central Bank of Bolivia publishes a reference USDT exchange rate based on weighted peer to peer activity on Binance. Its published data show how the stablecoin trades at a premium to the country’s official dollar rate.

The bank’s January financial stability report also identified foreign currency restrictions, higher inflation and low international reserves as continuing risks.

As previously reported, Bolivia moved toward recognizing USDT within its national payment system. Local banks already provide some USDT services, while businesses have used crypto for international payments and fuel related transactions.

The government has not completed a national framework making USDT equivalent to legal tender. Any description of formal payment status therefore remains forward looking.

Regional data support the broader trend Chainalysis measured nearly $1.5 trillion in Latin American crypto activity between July 2022 and June 2025. Argentina accounted for an estimated $93.9 billion, Venezuela $44.6 billion and Bolivia $14.8 billion.

Centralized exchanges processed 64% of regional activity, showing that users generally obtain digital assets through conventional trading platforms rather than decentralized protocols.

In related coverage, dollar stablecoins accounted for 40% of purchases by Bitso users during 2025, compared with 18% for Bitcoin. The exchange operates across several Latin American markets, so those figures should not be treated as Argentina only data.

Tether says its products served more than 570 million people by March 2026. That is a company supplied estimate rather than a count of fully identified individual users because one person can control several blockchain addresses.

The company’s reported USDT supply reached a record $188 billion during 2026, reinforcing its position as the largest dollar stablecoin.

Users still face issuer, regulatory, wallet and network risks. USDT represents a claim supported by Tether’s reserves, not a bank deposit, and availability can change when governments or exchanges introduce new stablecoin rules.

Uruguay seemed like the perfect place for cryptocurrency giant Tether to launch a bitcoin mining operation.

The company, which has issued nearly two thirds of all stablecoins in circulation, picked this still largely agricultural corner of South America that has in recent years become a hub for global fintech firms, helped by its reputation for political stability and favorable tax conditions.

In 2023, Tether said it would build two mining ​sites in Uruguay, part of a spending spree it said would bring economic development, new energy infrastructure and jobs to the country.

But amid a dispute over the amount of energy that would be supplied for its thirsty bitcoin mining, the plans unraveled and the ‌mining sites were abandoned, a Reuters review of documents and interviews with multiple people reveals. Little was left to show for a project that one person with direct knowledge estimated likely cost around $120 million.

Tether did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

The aborted Uruguay investment offers a rare window into the often opaque operations of Tether, as it seeks to expand and reinvest its vast profits into industries as varied as brain implants and soccer.

It also demonstrates how the basic economics of bitcoin mining — turning cheap energy into crypto profits — may no longer be adding up, after crypto prices dropped and as energy prices rise.

Tether’s ability to quickly dip in and out of Uruguay is typical of the “hypermobile” nature of bitcoin mining ​activity, which does not tend to create substantial long-term jobs or benefits for the host country, said Pete Howson, an assistant professor at Northumbria University.

“This plug-and-play infrastructure is very easy to do — literally pulling the plug and then move it to somewhere else,” he said.

'THE PERFECT PLATFORM'
In May ​2023, Tether announced the launch of bitcoin mining operations in Uruguay, without disclosing an investment value. It called Uruguay the “perfect platform," citing its abundant renewable energy and robust grid.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino and chairman Giancarlo Devasini are frequent ⁠visitors to Uruguay's booming beach resort of Punta del Este — dubbed the Monaco of South America — where they host private gatherings, industry sources told Reuters, and American billionaire Peter Thiel is building a $10 million residential compound nearby.

At the time, Tether said the plan involved “investing resources into energy production," without providing details.

Bitcoin mining, an energy-intensive ​process in which computers solve complex computational puzzles to be rewarded in bitcoin, is a core part of Tether’s investment plans. Ardoino told an industry conference last year the company has invested more than $2 billion in energy production and bitcoin mining.

A former Tether contractor who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity because they ​are not allowed to speak to the media said Uruguay had been intended as a “first step” for Tether’s bitcoin mining plans across South America.

Tether invested roughly $60 million in each of two mining sites in the department of Florida, totaling roughly $120 million, the former contractor said, citing their own assessments of how much the company had spent.

The project, a sizable deal for a country where annual foreign direct investment is around $2 billion, was aimed at using Uruguay as a testing ground before moving to bigger markets such as Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, the person said. Tether has since announced investments in bitcoin mining and platforms in Brazil.

Based in El Salvador with just a few hundred employees globally, Tether controls around $183 billion-worth of stablecoin. Some ​policymakers worry that stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency pegged to official currencies, risk endangering financial stability by increasing the linkages between crypto and mainstream finance.

Tether says its stablecoin is backed by an equivalent amount in real-world assets. Those assets have made it a top 20 holder of U.S. Treasuries — earning the company billions in ​profits now used to build a portfolio of investments it says is worth around $20 billion.

Most of those 100-plus investments are not disclosed, but those it has include data centers, video-sharing platform Rumble, which hosts U.S. President Donald Trump's Truth Social, and a brain-chip implants business, plus a stake in Italy’s Juventus football club.

SUPPLY DISAGREEMENT
A promotional video posted by ‌Tether on X in ⁠February 2024 of its nascent Uruguay operations showed rows of small buildings, with fans on top and computing hardware inside. Farmland surrounds the site, characteristic of the rural department of Florida, with wind turbines in the background.

Road signs around the buildings play on crypto jargon, such as “Memepool Avenue” and “Halving Street”, according to the video, which was verified by Reuters.

Initially well run, the site's operations generated income, the two former Tether contractors said.

Then the project began to unravel over a fundamental disagreement about electricity supply with state utility UTE, the two former contractors and a source at UTE said.

Tether believed a clause in its contract with UTE represented a minimum level of power supply that could later be increased — but UTE viewed the contracted amount as a maximum allocation that could not be exceeded, one of the former contractors said.

Sources at UTE also said the disagreement was over how much electricity Tether’s local legal entity Microfin was entitled to.

The dispute had begun by November 2024, according ​to an internal briefing UTE compiled in 2025 for its own staff ​that Reuters reviewed.

Insufficient power was a serious problem. As demand at the ⁠mining plants rose, Tether was short of supply, leaving the site without sufficient electricity for days at a time, the former contractor said.

Tether and Microfin did not respond to requests for comment on the UTE contract.

The first ex-contractor and a third source said the dispute had been compounded by a shift in Uruguay’s political landscape. A left‑leaning government took office in March 2025 and appointed new directors at UTE. The firm took a harder line on allowing Tether to renegotiate ​the energy supply contract, the contractor said.

Two months after the new government took office, Microfin stopped paying its electricity bills and then told UTE in June 2025 it would terminate its contracts, the UTE document shows.

Both sides ​sought to salvage the deal by agreeing to ⁠a revised contract, the UTE briefing notes show. The utility’s board approved a memorandum of understanding and revised contract texts, but Tether representatives did not attend the signing, according to the minutes in the briefing.

With the memorandum unsigned and unpaid bills, UTE cut power to the mining sites on July 25, according to the UTE document.

Tether told Uruguay’s labor authorities on November 25 that it would cease operations and lay off most staff, local newspaper El Observador reported.

Microfin settled its outstanding debts in December, UTE told Reuters.

SWITCH TO AI
The Uruguayan deal collapsed as Tether has sought to position bitcoin mining as a key part of its global investment portfolio.

But bitcoin mining has become less profitable, ⁠analysts say, hit by ​a pre-programmed reduction in the bitcoin rewards available — called the “halving” — in April 2024, as well as a sharp drop in bitcoin’s price from a peak in 2025.

To stay afloat, bitcoin miners have ​tried strategies including buying more efficient hardware, seeking cheaper energy, or using their computer power for AI and high-performance computing instead, said Tanay Ved, senior research analyst at Talos.

Crypto mining expert Nicolas Ribeiro described the industry as “extremely dynamic,” with operators opening, closing and relocating constantly.

Uruguay’s strengths — a reliable power grid and strong internet connectivity — are better suited to data centers for AI because mining hinges ​almost entirely on access to cheap electricity, Ribeiro added. Uruguay is a leader in renewable energy, but its power costs are relatively high.

“Uruguay isn’t viable for mining — that’s the reality,” he said.

Europe’s crackdown on Tether’s USDT is entering a new phase.

When Revolut told European users it would delist USDT after Aug. 31, it became another in a long line of European platforms restricting access to the world’s largest stablecoin as firms adapt to the requirements of the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation.

MiCA’s stablecoin rules have been phasing in since 2024, and the EU-wide transition period ended on July 1, putting further pressure on platforms to drop tokens that don’t meet the rules.

Yet according to Artemis Analytics, Tether being squeezed out of a major market has shown little sign of triggering a major shift in USDT activity. Alex Weseley, research and data, tells Magazine:

“The data does not indicate any noticeable change in USDT supply or demand attributable directly to MiCA coming into effect in Europe… MiCA didn’t trigger a major venue or chain migration.”So why is demand for Tether holding up so well?

Stablecoins become financial infrastructureOne reason USDT demand is proving resilient is that dollar stablecoins are being used for more than trading or saving in other regions of the world.

In Argentina, for example, a country long obsessed with stuffing dollars into mattresses and storing wealth outside the traditional financial system, stablecoin activity has continued to grow even though restrictions on accessing actual US dollars have eased.

USDT supply share by chain at MiCA milestones. Source: Artemis.

Lemon, an Argentine crypto and financial services platform, processed $9.3 billion in total volume in 2025, up 60% from the previous year. Transactional users grew 70% to nearly 1.8 million and stablecoin volume grew 45% year-on-year.

That suggests stablecoins are doing more than simply filling a gap created by restrictions on access to dollars; they’re becoming part of the way people move and spend money.

Ignacio Gimenez, Lemon’s business and planning manager, tells Magazine:

“The role of USDT and other dollar stablecoins is evolving. What we’re seeing is a shift from stablecoins as a store of value to stablecoins as financial infrastructure.”He says stablecoin activity is “increasingly driven by payments, cross-border transfers and global financial services rather than only by savings,” adding that Argentine users can pay in Brazil through PIX using pesos, receive dollars or euros from overseas and have them credited as USDC, or move between bank dollars and digital dollar balances.

That makes stablecoin demand harder to measure by simply looking at which tokens are available on regulated exchanges.

MiCA is changing the European gatewayLemon’s experience highlights a shift in user behavior in one of Latin America’s biggest economies, and there are signs that emerging markets are beginning to follow the trend.

Artemis data shows the number of daily users on Binance Smart Chain rose from about 318,000 in June 2024 to 1.56 million by July 2026, while daily users on Tron increased 44% to around 908,000. These chains are favored by day to day stablecoin users for their low fees. Weseley says:

“That looks like expanding global and emerging market usage rather than a Europe-specific migration, and there’s no clear MiCA-timed break in the chain data.”That doesn’t mean MiCA is irrelevant: it is certainly changing which stablecoins regulated European platforms can offer, and reshaping the stablecoin market inside the bloc.

USDT daily active addresses by chain at MiCA milestones. Source: Artemis.

Maksym Sakharov, chief executive and co-founder of WeFi, a crypto financial infrastructure company, says that regulation is primarily changing how users access dollar stablecoins, rather than removing the underlying demand, whether it’s for trading, payments, or cross-border transfers. He tells Magazine:

“Users do not choose a stablecoin only because it is available on one regulated platform. They choose it because counterparties use it, liquidity is deep, and it works across many markets.” For some platforms, the shift began well before the MiCA deadline. Chief executive of OKX Europe, Erald Ghoos, says OKX has not offered USDT to European users for around two years, so the latest MiCA deadline did not make much material difference.

Europe’s alternatives have a dollar problemPerhaps the bigger question in Europe is what European users will embrace instead. Dollar-denominated stablecoins have a powerful advantage since the crypto market has always treated the greenback as its primary benchmark.

USDT transfer volume share by chain pre vs. post MiCA. Source: Artemis.

While Ghoos doesn’t expect that to change globally any time soon, he says that institutional interest in euro-denominated stablecoins is picking up. He says:

“What we are seeing from institutional players is interest in creating more EUR-denominated stablecoins, which is worth watching as it develops.” For retail users, euro-denominated stablecoins could also make practical sense by removing additional friction, like currency conversion, from transactions. But while MiCA may determine which products are available through regulated European gateways, it cannot change the dollar’s role in global crypto markets.

Magazine: El Salvador’s Bitcoin experiment turns 5: ‘It was for us, not them’

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The GENIUS Act mandates Treasury bill reserves. FASB wants stablecoins counted as cash. The Treasury is writing enforcement rules for January 2027. Every provision points the same direction, and it is not toward protecting retail investors.

Summary

The GENIUS Act requires payment stablecoin issuers to hold reserves in U.S. Treasury bills, insured bank deposits, or Treasury repurchase agreements, turning every compliant stablecoin into a vehicle for dollar denominated sovereign debt distribution. Tether holds approximately $98 billion in U.S. Treasury bills as of its latest attestation, a position larger than the sovereign Treasury holdings of all but 18 countries, making a single stablecoin issuer one of the largest buyers of American government debt. FASB proposed three tests for stablecoins to qualify as cash equivalents on corporate balance sheets: redemption at par within one business day, reserves in low risk liquid assets, and independent attestation, codifying dollar stablecoins into the accounting system that underpins corporate finance. The U.S. Treasury published proposed rules on August 17 defining when payment stablecoins are issued, offered, or sold in the United States, with enforcement beginning January 2027, creating a compliance perimeter that favors dollar issuers with American banking relationships. The dollar’s share of global central bank reserves has declined from 72% in 2000 to roughly 57% in 2025, and stablecoins now circulate in countries where physical dollars and correspondent banking relationships have historically been difficult to maintain. The debate over stablecoin regulation in Washington has been framed, from the first hearing to the most recent markup, as a question of consumer protection. Are reserves adequate? Can holders redeem at par? Is the issuer solvent? These are the questions that legislators ask in public, the questions that lobbyists answer in testimony, and the questions that journalists use to structure their coverage.

They are also the wrong questions.

Consumer protection is a real concern. Tether operated for years without a credible audit. Terraform Labs marketed a stablecoin that collapsed to zero. Several smaller issuers have frozen redemptions during market stress. The history of the sector provides ample reason for regulation. But the legislation that Congress has actually written, the rules that regulators have actually proposed, and the accounting standards that the Financial Accounting Standards Board has actually drafted do not primarily address consumer harm. They address something else entirely.

Every major provision in the stablecoin regulatory stack points in the same direction: extending the reach of the U.S. dollar into financial infrastructure where it has historically been absent. The reserve requirements mandate Treasury bill purchases. The accounting rules fold stablecoins into the corporate cash system. The Treasury’s enforcement definitions create a compliance perimeter that structurally advantages dollar issuers. The pattern is consistent, and it has nothing to do with whether a retail investor in Lagos can redeem one USDT for one dollar.

The reserve requirement is a Treasury bill purchase mandate The GENIUS Act, which President Biden signed in June 2026, requires payment stablecoin issuers to back their tokens with a narrow set of eligible assets: U.S. Treasury bills with a remaining maturity of 93 days or less, insured deposits at FDIC member banks, or overnight Treasury repurchase agreements. The list is short, specific, and unmistakable in its effect.

When a stablecoin issuer mints a token, it must purchase one of these assets. When the stablecoin market grows, Treasury bill demand grows with it. The total stablecoin market capitalization crossed $178 billion in August 2026. If every dollar of that market were held in compliant reserves, stablecoin issuers would collectively hold more short term Treasury debt than the central banks of most G20 nations.

This is not an unintended consequence. The Treasury’s proposed rules for implementing the GENIUS Act, published on August 17, explicitly define the compliance perimeter around these reserve assets. The rules specify what counts as being “issued, offered, or sold in the United States,” creating a jurisdictional trigger that pulls any stablecoin with American users into the reserve mandate.

The effect is that stablecoin growth becomes synonymous with Treasury bill demand. Every new dollar of stablecoin issuance finances the U.S. government at the short end of the yield curve. In a period when the Treasury faces record refinancing needs and foreign central bank purchases of American debt have slowed, stablecoin issuers are becoming a structural buyer that did not exist a decade ago.

Tether is already a sovereign scale Treasury buyer The scale is not theoretical. Tether, which issues USDT with a market capitalization of approximately $119 billion, reported holding $98 billion in U.S. Treasury bills in its most recent quarterly attestation. That figure places Tether’s Treasury position above the sovereign holdings of Germany, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and every other country outside the top 18 holders of American government debt.

This has happened without legislation. Tether moved into Treasury bills voluntarily, partly to improve the credibility of its reserves and partly because short term Treasuries offer a risk free yield that generates billions in annual revenue. The company reported $5.2 billion in net profit for the first half of 2025, almost entirely from Treasury bill interest.

JUST IN: Stablecoin issuers have two years to become compliant under GENIUS Act

July 2028 marks the deadline when non compliant stablecoins can no longer be offered to U.S. users pic.twitter.com/PsPyra0yXp

— crypto.news (@cryptodotnews) July 20, 2026 What the GENIUS Act does is make Tether’s voluntary choice mandatory for everyone else. Circle, which issues USDC, already holds reserves primarily in Treasury bills and money market funds. RLUSD, Ripple’s stablecoin, which recently crossed $1.71 billion in circulating supply, will need to comply with the same requirements. World Liberty Financial, the Trump affiliated entity that received an OCC bank charter for its USD1 stablecoin, is building its reserve structure around the mandate from inception.

The net result is a financial system in which private companies issue dollar tokens backed by government debt, distributed through crypto rails to users who may never open a U.S. bank account or interact with a correspondent bank. The dollar extends its reach without the Federal Reserve printing a single additional banknote.

FASB is folding stablecoins into the cash system On August 19, the Financial Accounting Standards Board proposed three tests for stablecoins to qualify as cash equivalents on corporate balance sheets. The tests require: redemption at par within one business day, reserves held in low risk liquid assets, and independent attestation of those reserves on at least a quarterly basis.

The proposal sounds like consumer protection. It reads like consumer protection. But its primary effect is to integrate dollar stablecoins into the accounting infrastructure that every public company, auditor, and financial institution in the United States relies on.

Under current accounting rules, companies that hold stablecoins must classify them as intangible assets, mark them down when their value drops, and cannot mark them back up when the value recovers. This treatment makes stablecoins impractical for corporate treasury management, regardless of how stable they actually are. The FASB proposal would eliminate this barrier for tokens that meet the three tests.

The implications run deeper than corporate convenience. If stablecoins qualify as cash equivalents, they become fungible with dollars in the accounting systems of every company that adopts the standard. A corporation holding $50 million in USDC could report it on the same line as $50 million in a JPMorgan Chase money market account. The distinction between a dollar in a bank and a dollar in a stablecoin would narrow to the point of irrelevance for financial reporting purposes.

This matters for dollar hegemony because it embeds stablecoins into the institutional plumbing that makes the dollar the default currency of global commerce. Corporate balance sheets are not abstractions. They determine which currencies companies hold, which currencies they pay suppliers in, and which currencies they receive revenue in. When stablecoins become cash equivalents, the dollar gains distribution channels that are cheaper, faster, and more accessible than traditional banking.

The compliance perimeter favors American issuers The Treasury’s proposed rules define when a stablecoin is considered to be issued or sold “in the United States.” The definitions matter because they determine which issuers fall under American regulatory authority and, by extension, which issuers can serve American users and access American financial infrastructure.

NEW: GENIUS Act stablecoin rules deadline missed by U.S. regulators

The legislation will still activate in January 2027 despite incomplete finalization pic.twitter.com/t3JdMON7xJ

— crypto.news (@cryptodotnews) July 19, 2026 The rules create a compliance perimeter that structurally favors issuers with existing U.S. banking relationships. A company like Circle, which is headquartered in Boston and holds reserves at Bank of New York Mellon, is already inside the perimeter. A company like Tether, which is incorporated in the British Virgin Islands and maintains banking relationships through non U.S. institutions, must restructure its operations to comply or risk being classified as a non compliant issuer whose tokens American financial institutions cannot hold.

This is dollar policy, not consumer policy. A non compliant stablecoin and a compliant stablecoin may offer identical consumer protections. Both may hold 1:1 reserves in Treasury bills. Both may offer instant redemption. But only the compliant issuer can be held on the balance sheets of American banks, treated as a cash equivalent by American corporations, and cleared through American payment rails. The compliance perimeter does not protect consumers from loss. It protects the dollar from competition.

The euro and yuan alternatives are being designed out of the race Circle’s euro stablecoin EURC crossed 400 million euros in circulation in August 2026. That figure represents less than 0.3% of USDC’s market capitalization. The disparity is not an accident of market preference. It is a structural outcome of how stablecoin regulation has been designed.

The GENIUS Act does not prohibit non dollar stablecoins. But it creates a reserve and compliance framework that is built around dollar denominated assets, American regulatory institutions, and U.S. banking infrastructure. An issuer of a euro stablecoin must comply with the same framework if its tokens are used by American residents, but its reserves must be held in euro denominated assets that do not generate the same regulatory advantages as Treasury bills.

China’s digital yuan and the European Central Bank’s digital euro represent the clearest alternative visions. Both are central bank digital currencies rather than privately issued stablecoins. Both are designed to reduce dependence on the dollar in cross border payments. But neither has achieved meaningful adoption outside domestic pilot programs.

The American approach is different. While the CLARITY Act’s odds have collapsed to 10% and broader crypto legislation stalls, stablecoin regulation has moved forward at speed. Rather than issuing a government CBDC, the United States has chosen to regulate private stablecoin issuers in a way that turns them into dollar distribution agents. The advantages are significant: private issuers innovate faster than central banks, they absorb the operational risk of running payment infrastructure, and they create demand for government debt through the reserve mandate. The disadvantage is that the government depends on private companies to maintain the integrity of the system, which is why the consumer protection language exists, even if it is not the primary purpose of the legislation.

Wyoming’s FRNT, a state issued stablecoin that recently migrated from LayerZero to Chainlink for its cross chain infrastructure, represents a hybrid model. It is government issued but uses private blockchain rails. The experiment is worth watching, but at its current scale it does not challenge the fundamental dynamic: stablecoin regulation is designed to extend dollar reach through private issuers, not to replace them with government alternatives.

The January 2027 enforcement deadline The GENIUS Act’s key enforcement provisions take effect in January 2027. After that date, non compliant stablecoin issuers face restrictions on access to the U.S. financial system. The Treasury’s proposed rules, now in a public comment period, will determine exactly how those restrictions are applied.

The deadline creates a compliance race. Issuers that want to serve American users, or whose tokens are held by American institutions, must restructure their reserves, obtain the necessary licenses, and submit to the attestation requirements before January. For Circle and other U.S. based issuers, compliance is largely a formalization of existing practices. For Tether, which has operated outside the U.S. regulatory perimeter for its entire existence, the deadline represents a strategic choice: comply and accept American oversight, or accept exclusion from the American financial system.

The consequences of exclusion are not symmetric. An issuer locked out of the U.S. system loses access to the largest capital market in the world. But the dollar does not lose anything. A non compliant USDT that cannot be held by American banks or treated as a cash equivalent by American corporations will be replaced by a compliant alternative. The demand for dollar stablecoins does not disappear when Tether is excluded. It migrates to Circle, to RLUSD, to USD1, or to whatever new issuer fills the gap.

This is the clearest signal of the legislation’s true purpose. A consumer protection framework would focus on ensuring that all stablecoin holders, regardless of which token they hold, can redeem at par. The GENIUS Act does that, but it also creates a two tier system in which compliant issuers gain access to American infrastructure and non compliant issuers do not. The tier that matters is the infrastructure tier, not the redemption tier.

The dollar’s distribution problem The dollar’s share of global central bank reserves fell from 72% in 2000 to roughly 57% in 2025, according to IMF data. The decline is gradual, not dramatic, and the dollar remains the dominant reserve currency by a wide margin. But the trend concerns policymakers because it reflects a structural shift: countries are diversifying into euros, yuan, gold, and other assets, and the correspondent banking system that distributes dollars globally has become more expensive and more restricted.

Stablecoins solve the distribution problem. A merchant in Lagos, a freelancer in Manila, or a small business in Sao Paulo can hold dollar stablecoins without a bank account, without a correspondent banking relationship, and without paying the fees that international wire transfers impose. The stablecoin is the dollar in a format that is cheaper to move, easier to access, and available 24 hours a day.

LATEST: 🇺🇸 Coinbase stablecoin revenue could surge 7x under Genius Act, but draft bill may restrict this growth by banning yield payments to holders, per Bloomberg. pic.twitter.com/KypHu86PSB

— crypto.news (@cryptodotnews) February 24, 2026 The regulatory framework ensures that this distribution channel remains tied to the American financial system. The reserve mandate ensures that every stablecoin is backed by Treasury debt. The FASB rules ensure that stablecoins are treated as dollars by the accounting system. The compliance perimeter ensures that the issuers who control the largest distribution networks operate under American oversight.

The consumer protection language is real, and the protections it provides are genuine. Holders of compliant stablecoins will have stronger redemption rights, clearer disclosure, and more reliable reserves than they do today. But the architecture of the system is designed to solve a problem that has nothing to do with consumer harm and everything to do with maintaining the dollar’s position as the world’s reserve currency in a decade when that position is under more pressure than at any point since Bretton Woods.

What to watch The Treasury’s comment period on GENIUS Act rules. Public comments close in October. The final rules will determine how strictly the compliance perimeter is enforced and whether non U.S. issuers receive a realistic path to compliance.

Tether’s compliance strategy. The company has not publicly committed to full GENIUS Act compliance. Any announcement of a U.S. entity, U.S. banking partner, or restructured reserve framework would signal that Tether views exclusion as an unacceptable business risk.

FASB’s final vote on the cash equivalents proposal. If adopted, the standard would take effect for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2027. Early adoption would be permitted, and major technology companies with existing stablecoin exposure would likely adopt immediately.

Non dollar stablecoin issuance volume. If EURC, HKDAP, or other non dollar stablecoins grow faster than dollar stablecoins in the 12 months following the GENIUS Act’s enforcement date, it would suggest that the regulatory framework is pushing activity offshore rather than capturing it.

Central bank digital currency timelines. The ECB has targeted 2028 for a possible digital euro launch. Any acceleration or delay will affect whether dollar stablecoins face a serious competitor in the payments layer.

What is the GENIUS Act? The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act is a federal law signed in June 2026 that creates a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins. It defines reserve requirements, licensing obligations, and consumer protections for stablecoin issuers operating in or serving users in the United States.

Why do stablecoin reserve requirements matter for the dollar? The GENIUS Act requires stablecoin reserves to be held in U.S. Treasury bills, insured bank deposits, or Treasury repurchase agreements. This means every dollar of stablecoin growth generates demand for dollar denominated government debt, turning stablecoin issuers into structural buyers of Treasury securities.

How much U.S. Treasury debt do stablecoin issuers hold? Tether alone holds approximately $98 billion in Treasury bills, a position larger than the sovereign Treasury holdings of most G20 nations. Combined with Circle’s reserves and other issuers, the stablecoin sector holds well over $130 billion in short term U.S. government debt.

What happens to Tether under the new rules? Tether must comply with the GENIUS Act’s requirements by January 2027 or face restrictions on access to the U.S. financial system. The company has not publicly committed to full compliance, and its incorporation in the British Virgin Islands complicates the path to meeting U.S. regulatory standards.

Can non dollar stablecoins compete under this framework? Technically yes, but the framework is structurally designed around dollar denominated assets and U.S. regulatory institutions. Non dollar stablecoins must comply with the same rules if they serve American users, but their reserves cannot generate the same regulatory and financial advantages as dollar backed tokens.

Is the United States building a central bank digital currency instead? No. The current U.S. approach relies on regulating private stablecoin issuers rather than issuing a government CBDC. This strategy allows private companies to handle operations and innovation while the government maintains oversight through reserve mandates and compliance requirements.

How does stablecoin regulation affect people outside the United States? Stablecoin regulation extends dollar access to users in countries where physical dollars and traditional banking are difficult to obtain. A merchant or freelancer in an emerging market can hold dollar stablecoins without a bank account, effectively joining the dollar system through crypto rails rather than correspondent banking. This is educational analysis, not investment advice.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or investment advice. Cryptocurrency investments carry significant risk. Always conduct your own research before making investment decisions. Information is accurate as of August 19, 2026.

Tether announced Thursday that KPMG U.S. completed the company's first full independent financial statement audit, issuing an unqualified opinion on Tether International's 2025 financials and confirming that reserves backing USDT exceeded liabilities by $6.814 billion at year-end.

The distinction between this and what Tether has published before matters more than the headline number. Attestations, which Tether has relied on since 2021, are limited to a snapshot in time, built on a scope the company itself defines, and carry no binding opinion from the accounting firm performing them. A full audit is different in kind: KPMG examined Tether's complete financial statements, transactions, systems, valuations, counterparties, and ownership records, and — notably — physically counted and inspected every individual gold bar Tether holds, verifying existence and identifying information directly rather than relying on custodian reports. The audit covered a balance sheet that includes more than $141 billion in direct and indirect US Treasury exposure, alongside gold and roughly $60 billion in bitcoin, according to Arkham Intelligence data cited by outlets covering the announcement; Tether's own statement did not break out its bitcoin position. CEO Paolo Ardoino called it the "largest inaugural financial audit in history," and noted that critics had spent years insisting an audit of Tether's scale could never actually be completed.

The audit result gave both sides of Tether's long-running credibility debate something to point to. Supporters treated the $6.8 billion surplus and KPMG's clean opinion as vindication after years of unresolved scrutiny. Critics were quicker to note that gold verification, however thorough, addresses only one reserve category, and that KPMG's own network has previously audited firms that later collapsed under fraud allegations — a reminder that a clean audit opinion narrows the range of open questions without eliminating all of them.

The credibility question Tether just answered first became unavoidable in October 2024, where we covered a public accusation that Tether was "a $120 billion scam" with no audit ever completed — a claim that gained traction precisely because it was, at the time, factually true: no independent audit existed, only quarterly attestations Tether itself commissioned. That gap persisted even as Tether pursued a US-facing pivot, with Blockhead reporting last September that Tether launched USAT, a dollar stablecoin built for American compliance through Anchorage Digital, after a 2021 New York Attorney General settlement first forced the company into a regime of quarterly attestations without an admission of wrongdoing. This audit is the step that gap-filling campaign had been building toward.

USDT's market capitalization has passed $180 billion, and Tether has become one of the largest private holders of US government debt globally — a scale where "trust us" stopped being a sufficient answer for regulators and institutional counterparties years ago. A single audit doesn't retroactively resolve every past criticism, and the audited entity is a Tether subsidiary rather than the parent company. But it does convert the central question that's followed Tether since 2017 — do the reserves actually exist — from something only Tether could answer into something a Big Four firm has now put its own name behind. Whether that's enough for the regulators still watching USDT's compliance status under the GENIUS Act, given Tether issues the token from outside the US, is the next question the audit alone can't settle.

The tokenized gold market just had a very good month. Gold-backed assets across tokenized commodity markets grew by more than $362 million over the past 30 days, with Tether Gold (XAUT) responsible for $237 million of that increase, roughly two-thirds of the total gain.

XAUT’s growing dominance
Tether Gold has climbed to a market cap of approximately $2.48 billion, with each token priced around $4,040. Each XAUT token is backed by one fine troy ounce of physical gold stored in Swiss vaults, meaning the token’s price essentially tracks spot gold.

The broader tokenized gold market sits somewhere between $5 billion and $6 billion in total capitalization as of 2026. XAUT and its closest competitor, Paxos Gold (PAXG), collectively account for between 93% and 97% of that total, depending on the measurement period.

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Why tokenized gold keeps growing
Tokenized gold market cap grew by 30% in Q1 2026, outpacing the growth rate of physical gold holdings during the same period. The tokenized versions have also attracted net new capital beyond what price appreciation alone would explain, suggesting genuine demand for the format rather than just passive exposure to the metal.

Traditional gold ownership comes with friction. Physical bullion needs secure storage and insurance. Gold ETFs require brokerage accounts and trade only during market hours. Tokenized gold lives on-chain, trades around the clock, and can be moved or used as collateral in DeFi protocols without waiting for a settlement cycle.

The competitive landscape
Tether’s position as the market leader in tokenized gold mirrors its dominance in the stablecoin market, where USDT remains the most widely held dollar-pegged token.

Paxos Gold operates under New York state regulatory oversight, which gives PAXG a compliance advantage that appeals to certain institutional buyers. The two tokens serve slightly different audiences, which helps explain why the market supports both rather than converging on a single winner.

The remaining 3% to 7% of market share is fragmented across smaller issuers, none of which have achieved meaningful scale. Breaking into this market requires not just a token, but a verifiable custody relationship with a recognized vault operator, transparent auditing, and enough liquidity to attract serious traders.

What to watch from here
The $237 million that XAUT added in a single month represents roughly a 10% increase relative to its current market cap.

On the regulatory side, several major jurisdictions have moved toward frameworks that explicitly address tokenized securities and commodities. Clearer rules could unlock institutional capital that has been sitting on the sidelines before allocating to on-chain gold products.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Cover image via depositphotos.com Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by our writers are their own and do not represent the views of U.Today. The financial and market information provided on U.Today is intended for informational purposes only. U.Today is not liable for any financial losses incurred while trading cryptocurrencies. Conduct your own research by contacting financial experts before making any investment decisions. We believe that all content is accurate as of the date of publication, but certain offers mentioned may no longer be available.

Strategy chairman Michael Saylor, who had championed uncompromising Bitcoin maximalism for years, has made an unexpected compromise with the fiat world. The entrepreneur unveiled the concept of a multi-layered Digital Finance Stack, in which the USDT stablecoin has, for the first time, been officially designated as the ecosystem's primary transactional gateway.

The new architecture clearly distributes assets across the monetary spectrum: from volatile Bitcoin on the left flank to stable fiat payment instruments on the right.

How Saylor plans to supercharge Bitcoin with USDTWithin this framework, Bitcoin is assigned exclusively the role of "heavy" digital capital and the ultimate defensive asset. To directly address Bitcoin's limited transactional utility, the largest corporate holder of the cryptocurrency has unexpectedly integrated Tether's USDT into the model.

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This zero-volatility instrument is intended to fully meet the market's need for fast, everyday payments.

Michael Saylor's Bitcoin-centered Digital Capital framework, Source: Michael Saylor via X.comServing as a bridge between them are new structured financial-engineering products developed by Strategy itself. These include STRC, a semi-stable, fixed-income credit instrument represented by the company's Bitcoin-backed preferred stock, and SR-strcUSX, a hybrid token created for the sole purpose of combining the stability of fiat currency with debt-market yields.

The top layer of this system is Digital Equity, which connects all levels of the framework into a single business. 

You can live on Bitcoin. You can also build on it. Crude oil is valuable, but civilization gets more utility by refining it into gasoline, jet fuel, plastics, lubricants, and asphalt. Bitcoin is Digital Capital. Innovation turns capital into credit, money, and currency.

— Michael Saylor (@saylor) August 13, 2026 Under Saylor's vision, fintech companies will be able to earn revenue by managing these payment and credit instruments, while investors will receive a share of their earnings by purchasing equity.

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Saylor's theoretical framework has emerged at a moment of severe stress testing for Strategy's actual balance sheet. The company's latest reports showed that it had broken its "never sell" rule, liquidating 6,948 BTC worth $432.5 million this summer to pay dividends and maintain liquidity. The sale came as the STRC preferred stock was trading below its $100 par value.

Although CEO Phong Le said this week that Strategy expects to return to net Bitcoin purchases by the end of 2026, Saylor's new concept clearly shows that the company is attempting to transform its massive reserve of 840,447 BTC from a passive and volatile burden into an active commercial fintech instrument.

TLDR The USDT stablecoin issuer acquired approximately 27 metric tons of gold during H1 2026, equaling Kazakhstan’s central bank accumulation The precious metal climbed 0.7% to roughly $4,400 per ounce in anticipation of U.S. inflation figures According to Jefferies research, Tether has emerged as “a meaningful source of incremental physical gold demand” The People’s Bank of China extended its gold buying streak to 21 consecutive months in July, purchasing approximately 640,000 troy ounces The yellow metal confronts critical resistance between $4,460 and $4,495, with analysts eyeing $5,000 as the subsequent major milestone The precious metals market is experiencing upward momentum, driven significantly by an unexpected cryptocurrency player and China’s persistent accumulation strategy.

The stablecoin giant behind USDT accumulated over 27 metric tons of the precious metal during the initial six months of 2026. This volume places the company alongside Kazakhstan in the rankings, trailing only Poland, Uzbekistan, and China among the year’s most significant institutional purchasers.

🔥Tether has quietly become one of the world's largest gold buyers:

Tether's gold reserves have increased by ~85 metric tons since Q1 2025, a larger increase than those of Uzbekistan, China, Brazil, or Kazakhstan.

TAP IMAGE TO SEE FULL INSIGHT👇https://t.co/dt5dUkeNoF

— Global Markets Investor (@GlobalMktObserv) August 12, 2026

The rationale behind Tether’s gold acquisitions mirrors traditional central bank strategies. The company seeks portfolio diversification while creating a buffer against inflationary pressures and U.S. dollar depreciation. Given that USDT maintains a peg to the greenback, currency weakness presents direct operational risks.

Research from Jefferies indicates that Tether’s purchasing activity has contributed to the precious metal’s summer rally. Current trading levels hover around $4,420 per ounce, representing approximately 12% appreciation from the early July trough near $4,000.

“Tether is no longer a niche participant, but a meaningful source of incremental physical gold demand,” the Jefferies analysts wrote.

Beyond physical holdings, Tether operates a blockchain-based gold product called Tether Gold, which digitizes ownership rights to physical bullion. The firm’s Q2 Tether Gold reserves increased 9.5% compared to Q1 levels.

According to CEO Paolo Ardoino, investors aren’t simply chasing price appreciation. Instead, they’re strategically accumulating during market corrections through an instrument that offers “fully backed, transparent, portable, and accessible on-chain” exposure.

Precious Metal Gains Momentum Before Critical Inflation Release Spot gold advanced 0.7% to approximately $4,400 per ounce Wednesday as market participants positioned ahead of the Consumer Price Index announcement. The inflation data will likely influence Federal Reserve policy direction.

Interest rate swap markets currently price in roughly even odds for a 25-basis-point rate increase in September. Lower-than-expected inflation could reduce pressure for tightening, whereas elevated readings might strengthen hawkish expectations.

Saxo Bank strategists noted that market participants are monitoring whether the rally above $4,200 possesses sufficient strength to test resistance near $4,460 and the 200-day moving average around $4,495. Clearing these technical barriers could establish a trajectory toward $5,000.

Exchange-traded fund flows into gold products have maintained momentum for five consecutive sessions, elevating aggregate holdings to their highest point in six weeks.

Middle East Instability and Persistent Chinese Demand Bolster Prices Escalating friction surrounding the Strait of Hormuz continues affecting energy markets while providing underlying support for safe-haven assets. Iranian officials maintain the critical shipping lane will remain blocked until Washington removes restrictions on Iranian port access. Elevated energy costs could accelerate inflation, potentially constraining the Fed’s flexibility on rate cuts.

The People’s Bank of China maintained its unbroken purchasing pattern in July, marking the 21st consecutive month of additions and lifting total reserves to 76.08 million ounces. Chinese gold-backed exchange-traded products similarly continued drawing capital inflows.

Tether’s gold accumulation strategy persists despite Bitcoin declining over 25% year-to-date, while Ethereum and Solana have each dropped nearly 40%.

Producer price index data scheduled for Thursday will provide markets with additional inflation insights ahead of the Federal Reserve’s upcoming policy meeting.