The Trump administration is considering an initiative to promote the use of US dollar-backed stablecoins outside the United States. The goal is to reinforce the dollar’s position as the world’s main reserve currency and widen the pool of buyers for US government debt.
The discussions involve possible joint ventures between federal agencies and private companies, according to people familiar with the plans. No decision has been announced.
Bloomberg first reported the deliberations on September 23, citing people who asked not to be named because the talks are private. According to the report, stablecoin projects are among several areas where Washington is weighing public-private ventures to maintain the dollar’s global standing. The Treasury Department and the White House did not respond to Bloomberg’s requests for comment. Representatives for the State Department and the DFC declined to comment.
Stablecoins are digital tokens designed to hold a steady value, usually one US dollar. They are backed by reserves such as cash and short-term government securities. The two largest are USDT, issued by Tether, and USDC, issued by Circle.
What Washington Is Considering
Bloomberg and subsequent accounts of that report name the Treasury Department, the State Department and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) as possible participants. The DFC is the federal agency that finances private sector projects in developing economies.
The reporting did not identify any companies or say how such ventures would be structured, funded or timed. The White House has not announced a program.
The link to Treasury demand is the administration’s stated case, not a settled market fact. A reserve currency is one that central banks and governments hold in large amounts for trade and financial stability. Under the GENIUS Act’s reserve rules, permitted payment stablecoins are to be matched one-to-one by high-quality liquid assets, a large share of which can be Treasury bills. More tokens circulating abroad could mean more of those purchases.
A Policy Signaled From the Start
The idea builds on the administration’s earliest crypto policy. President Donald Trump’s January 23, 2025 executive order, Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology, made it official policy to protect the dollar’s sovereignty by promoting “lawful and legitimate dollar-backed stablecoins worldwide.” The same order barred federal agencies from establishing a central bank digital currency (CBDC), a digital form of money issued directly by a central bank.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has made the debt argument openly. In a statement on July 18, 2025, he said stablecoins would “buttress the dollar’s status as the global reserve currency.” He also said they would expand access to the dollar economy and drive demand for the Treasuries that back them.
The GENIUS Act Sets the Rulebook
Any overseas push would rest on the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, known as the GENIUS Act. President Trump signed it on July 18, 2025. It is the first federal framework for payment stablecoins. It requires issuers to back tokens one-to-one with high-quality liquid assets such as cash, bank deposits, and short-term Treasury bills. It also bars issuers from paying interest or yield to holders.
The law takes effect on January 18, 2027, or 120 days after regulators issue final implementing rules, whichever comes first. Regulators missed the law’s July 18, 2026 deadline for final rules, so the January 2027 backstop is now widely expected to govern. Rulemaking is split across multiple federal agencies, including the Treasury, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
Rising Yields and a Slowing Stablecoin Market
The timing reflects pressure in the bond market. The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point to a range of 3.75% to 4% on September 16. It was the central bank’s first increase since July 2023. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield has climbed above 5% this month, its highest level since 2007. Higher yields raise the government’s borrowing costs, which is why new sources of demand for federal debt are drawing attention.
Stablecoin growth has also cooled. Tether’s second-quarter attestation put USDT in circulation at about $184.6 billion as of June 30, up roughly $446 million from the end of March. Tether said the broader stablecoin market shrank during the quarter. Circle reports about $74.6 billion in USDC in circulation as of September 21.
Wall Street Is Already Building
Private finance is moving into the same space. Twenty-one financial institutions, including Bank of America, Citi and Goldman Sachs, announced on September 1 that they will form a company in the second half of 2026. The company will issue a regulated US dollar stablecoin, with a market launch targeted for the first half of 2027.
Asset managers are competing to hold the reserves. Fidelity has launched the Fidelity Reserves Digital Fund, a money market fund built for stablecoin issuers. Morgan Stanley introduced a similar reserves portfolio earlier this year.
Stablecoin issuer Agora has received preliminary conditional approval from the OCC to establish a national trust bank for stablecoin and custody services. The OCC is the federal regulator of national banks.
Questions at Home and Abroad
Foreign regulators are reshaping their own rules. The European Central Bank and the EU’s national central banks have urged Brussels to scrap a requirement under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), the EU’s crypto law. That rule forces large stablecoin issuers to keep up to 60% of reserves in bank deposits.
Some economists question the Treasury argument itself. Ousmène Mandeng, writing for the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), a think tank focused on central banking, argued that stablecoins may largely shift existing money rather than create new net demand for Treasuries. A separate OMFIF analysis this month noted that the US may gain a financing benefit from reserve demand. However, it said the benefit to economies where dollar tokens replace local currency is far less clear.
The approach also contrasts with official digital currencies. Many countries are testing CBDCs, but Congress barred the Federal Reserve from issuing one through December 31, 2030. That ban came through the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which became law in July without the president’s signature. Washington’s bet is that privately issued, federally regulated dollar tokens can spread faster than a government-run alternative.
What Comes Next
Nothing in the current discussions amounts to a finished program. There is no public list of partner firms, no disclosed budget, and no official confirmation of the talks.
What the reporting does show is a shift in posture. Washington spent the past year writing a domestic stablecoin rulebook. It is now weighing whether to actively carry that rulebook into overseas payment corridors. If the initiative advances, its first effects would likely appear in issuer reserve holdings and in a broader debate over how far the government should go in using private tokens as a tool of dollar policy.
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