Tether has deployed its US-focused USAT stablecoin on Celo, the token's second supported mainnet after Ethereum. Native minting, burning and gas-fee payments went live on day one. USAT has reached a market capitalization of about $185 million since launching in January.
Tether announced the USAT deployment on Wednesday, several months after the two companies disclosed plans for the launch in March. Celo becomes the second mainnet to support the stablecoin, following its initial rollout on Ethereum.
Holders can use native mint-and-burn functions on Celo rather than relying solely on bridged tokens. Native issuance reduces the need to move tokens through third-party bridges, which can introduce additional technical and custody risks.
The token also works as a gas currency. Celo introduced that function through its CIP-64 upgrade, which allows approved ERC-20 tokens to serve as gas currencies instead of requiring users to hold a separate network token. Tether US CEO Bo Hines said the expansion was deliberate: "Expanding USA₮ to Celo was a deliberate decision".
Celo accounts for 28% of cross-chain USDT transfers
Celo has become Tether's largest USDT distribution network by weekly active users since the flagship stablecoin launched on the blockchain in 2024, according to the announcement. The network accounts for 28% of cross-blockchain USDT transfers and holds more than 90% of the market for XAUt0, the omnichain version of Tether Gold.
Tether's transparency data lists about $470 million in authorized USDT on Celo, making it the token's eighth-largest supported blockchain by that measure. Authorized tokens include inventory available for future issuance and do not necessarily represent the amount currently circulating.
Separate market estimates place Celo's total circulating stablecoin supply near $136 million, with USDT accounting for about $78.8 million and giving Tether a 57.6% share of that market. Opera has also launched a self-custodial stablecoin wallet on Celo with Tether's support, and the product has reportedly reached more than 18 million users worldwide.
USAT targets regulated dollar payments in the US
USAT remains a small fraction of USDT's roughly $180 billion supply, but the two tokens serve different markets. Tether designed USAT around the requirements of the US GENIUS Act, keeping reserves in cash or liquid cash equivalents, including US Treasury securities, to support one-to-one redemptions.
Anchorage Digital Bank, a federally chartered crypto bank supervised by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, issues the token. That regulated structure places USAT at the center of Tether's effort to expand beyond crypto trading and into everyday US payments.
Payroll deal pushes USAT toward employer payments
Tether led Pact Labs' $7 million Series A round alongside Blockchange Ventures and Lasagna in mid-July, a deal aimed at integrating USAT into payroll and payment systems used by American employers. Pact Labs plans to let businesses process wages through blockchain payment rails while adding embedded digital wallets and related financial services, in a US payroll market that processes more than $11 trillion annually.
Celo's low fees, mobile-focused design and existing stablecoin activity could provide another settlement network for those applications. The blockchain began as a Layer 1 in 2020 before moving to an Ethereum Layer 2 built on the OP Stack in March 2025.
Source: crypto.news
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