USA₮, the dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank and supported by Tether, is being expanded to Celo, marking the first blockchain deployment beyond Ethereum.
This move puts regulated tokens on a network that has become one of the most active rails for stablecoin usage in the real world.
Tether introduced the token in January as a U.S.-regulated product issued through Anchorage Digital Bank under federal OCC oversight, positioning it as a domestic complement to USD₮ rather than a replacement for its flagship offshore stablecoin. This project was built to comply with the GENIUS Act and target users in the United States through a more tightly regulated structure.
Celo provides USA₮ with instant access to a distribution network that is likely already built for stablecoin payments. Opera announced this month that MiniPay, Celo’s self-custodial wallet, has grown to more than 14 million account registrations and processed more than 420 million transactions in more than 66 countries.
Opera and Celo also said that the network currently counts more than US$4.23 million weekly active users, highlighting how the core stablecoin is active on-chain.
This helps explain why Celo was chosen as the first expansion chain. The network leans toward payments, with features such as fee abstraction that allows users to pay for gas in stablecoins instead of native tokens, and a mobile-first design for cheap and simple transfers. Celo describes itself as an Ethereum Layer 2 focused on fast, low-cost payments and real-world adoption.
Google Cloud is also part of the rollout, adding a broader infrastructure layer to the release. The company is further expanding into digital assets and payments infrastructure through products such as Universal Ledger, built for programmable money transfers and compliance-focused financial applications. In this case, the USA₮ rollout will connect its infrastructure to the privacy-preserving Proof of Humanity distribution model through Self.
