Tether’s USAT stablecoin launches on Celo with native mint, burn and gas support

Tether-backed stablecoin USAT, issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, has gone live on Celo in its first expansion beyond Ethereum, making Celo the second blockchain to natively support the regulated dollar token. The rollout includes native minting and burning and, unlike earlier expectations that gas-fee use would require governance approval, lets users pay transaction fees in USAT from launch through Celo’s fee abstraction system. The move deepens Tether’s footprint on Celo, where native USDT and XAUt0 are already supported. Celo said stablecoins account for more than half of gas fee payments on the network, underscoring its positioning as a payments-focused chain for dollar-denominated transfers. Support is already live in Valora, while MiniPay is expected to add USAT in a future update. Celo also said integrations with Morpho, Squid and Uniswap are planned to enable trading, lending and cross-chain liquidity. Earlier this year, Rumble added USAT to its crypto wallet alongside USDT, Tether Gold and Bitcoin, expanding consumer-facing use of the token. USAT is issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, the first federally chartered digital asset bank in the United States, and is backed by reserves custodied by Cantor Fitzgerald. The stablecoin has been structured to align with standards established under the GENIUS Act, highlighting the broader push toward regulated digital-dollar infrastructure for payments, settlement and decentralized finance.