Tether launches federally regulated USA₮ stablecoin amid GENIUS Act debate

Tether has introduced USA₮, a U.S.-regulated stablecoin issued through Anchorage Digital Bank to comply with the GENIUS Act. The token is fully backed, with reserves held by Cantor Fitzgerald, and is already listed on major exchanges such as Kraken, Crypto.com, OKX, Bybit and MoonPay. USA₮ is positioned as a "made in America" digital dollar that competes directly with Circle's USDC and marks the first stablecoin issued under direct federal oversight.

At the same time, a coalition of crypto policy groups led by Hyperliquid and venture firm Paradigm has urged the U.S. Treasury and FinCEN to limit the scope of the GENIUS Act's AML and sanctions rules. Their joint comment argues that extending compliance obligations to secondary‑market activity would be impractical for issuers operating on permissionless blockchains and could push stablecoins toward permissioned environments, weakening the DeFi ecosystem. The groups call for the rule to focus on primary‑market responsibilities while applying a restrained approach to secondary markets.