USAT Stablecoin Expands to Celo Blockchain in First Layer-2 Deployment

Tether has announced the expansion of USAT, a regulated U.S. dollar stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital, to the Celo blockchain — marking the first time the digital asset has been deployed beyond Ethereum mainnet. Celo operates as an Ethereum layer-2 scaling network, and Google Cloud will provide infrastructure support for the rollout.

USAT launched on Ethereum in January and is now broadening its reach to tap into Celo's growing mobile-first ecosystem. Opera MiniPay, which runs on the Celo network, already serves 14 million wallet users worldwide, giving USAT immediate access to a large base of active on-chain participants. Plans are also underway for USAT to function as a native gas currency on the Celo network, pending governance approval.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino emphasized the strategic importance of the move, noting that over 566 million people rely on USDT to access and transfer dollars — especially in regions where traditional banking infrastructure is limited. He described the Celo expansion as a step toward making programmable, trusted money available wherever people are already transacting.

Celo co-founder Rene Reinsberg welcomed the partnership, calling it a strong validation of the network's infrastructure and a demonstration of what next-generation financial access can look like — compliant, mobile-ready, and instantly usable.

On the compliance front, Deloitte conducted USAT's first attestation report, confirming that approximately $17.6 million in cash and U.S. Treasuries backed around $17.5 million in tokens as of January 31. Meanwhile, Tether's flagship USDT stablecoin — the largest in the world by market cap at $184 billion — recently announced it has engaged one of the Big Four accounting firms for a full independent audit. Reports have since identified KPMG as the firm selected to conduct the review.