Tether expands its GENIUS Act-compliant USAT stablecoin to Celo, bringing gas-free stablecoin payments & boosting Celo's growing role in digital commerce.
Tether, the largest issuer of USDT stablecoin, has expanded its GENIUS Act-compliant USAT stablecoin to the Celo blockchain. This marks the token's first multi-chain deployment beyond Ethereum. The launch brings native minting, burning, and gas fee support to Celo.
Unlike Ethereum, where users must hold ETH to pay transaction fees, Celo allows approved ERC-20 tokens to cover gas costs through its CIP-64 fee abstraction upgrade.
As a result, users can send USAT without needing a separate native token, removing one of the biggest hurdles for everyday stablecoin users.
Tether US CEO Bo Hines said the decision was intentional because Celo already supports large-scale digital dollar usage.
"USAT is designed to operate in environments where digital dollars are already being used at scale, and that is what Celo has built, with hundreds of thousands of people transacting on the network every day."
The companies first announced the integration in March, with Wednesday's launch making Celo only the second blockchain to support native USAT after Ethereum.
The biggest advantage of the launch is user experience. From day one, USAT supports native minting, burning, and gas payments on Celo. Instead of purchasing CELO simply to pay network fees, users can complete transactions using USAT itself.
That may seem like a small improvement, but it removes one of crypto's most common onboarding challenges, holding multiple tokens just to move money.
The feature builds on Celo's fee abstraction infrastructure, which has already gained significant adoption. Today, more than 50% of all gas fees on Celo are paid using stablecoins, demonstrating growing demand for simplified payment experiences.
The integration will also benefit applications already running on Celo. MiniPay, Opera's stablecoin wallet built exclusively on the network, has onboarded more than 18 million users globally and will soon add USAT support.
The wallet already enables low-cost remittances, savings, merchant payments, and recently introduced a virtual card through partnerships with Visa and Gnosis Pay.
Although both tokens are backed by Tether, USAT and USDT serve different purposes.
USDT is the world's largest stablecoin, with a market capitalization of roughly $180 billion, and is widely used across global crypto markets for trading, settlements, and liquidity.
USAT, by comparison, was launched in January specifically for the U.S. regulatory market. The stablecoin is issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, the first federally chartered digital asset bank in the United States, while Tether provides the reserve backing.
It has already grown to a market cap of approximately $136 million.
More importantly, USAT is designed to comply with the GENIUS Act, the new U.S. stablecoin framework that establishes stricter requirements around issuance, reserve management, and regulatory oversight.
By expanding beyond Ethereum, Tether is positioning USAT as a regulated digital dollar for real-world payments rather than simply another trading asset.
Following USDT's native deployment in 2024, Celo has become Tether's largest distribution network by weekly active users. The network now processes 28% of all cross-chain USDT transfers, while also accounting for more than 90% of unique holders of XAUt0, Tether's omnichain gold backed token.
The ecosystem has expanded rapidly this year. Celo reported 67% user growth during the second quarter of 2026, driven largely by remittances, cross-border payments, and everyday commerce.
According to Tether's data, approximately $470 million worth of USDT has been authorized on Celo, making it one of the stablecoin's largest blockchain networks.
Celo co-founder and Celo Core Co. CEO Marek Olszewski said bringing USAT to the network strengthens its mission of making digital dollars more accessible for everyday financial use.
"USAT brings a U.S. dollar stablecoin designed to comply with federal regulations to the rails millions of people already use every day for remittances, savings, and commerce."
The expansion signals that Tether is building a multi-product stablecoin strategy rather than relying solely on USDT.
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