A new chapter for stablecoins in America 🇺🇸

@AnchorageJan 28, 2026

The Spaces brings Anchorage Digital’s leaders together to discuss the USAT launch with Tether, the role of federally regulated stablecoins, and where the market is heading in 2026. Nathan (Anchorage co‑founder & CEO), Sergio (Head of Stablecoins), and Martin outline Anchorage’s platform: OCC‑chartered custody, trading, settlement, and issuance infrastructure for named stablecoins. They argue banks will be central nodes in the stablecoin economy, with Anchorage positioned as the “bank for banks.” USAT is framed as a regulatory watershed following the Genius Act, enabling compliant issuance at scale. The panel explains why enterprises may issue branded stablecoins (reserve income, control, programmability, distribution) and predicts a multi‑stablecoin world with potentially thousands of issuer‑specific coins. Under‑hyped themes include institutional use cases (triparty repo, collateral, bank‑to‑bank settlement) and the scale of adoption; over‑hyped themes include yield and the influence of any single coin. They expect a flywheel as more assets (bonds, equities) move on‑chain (aided by SEC no‑action to DTCC), boosting demand for stablecoins. 2026 is seen as an inflection year for U.S. adoption, with offshore dollarization and cross‑border payments still dominant growth drivers, and regulated oversight (OCC) key to trust.

Anchorage Digital Twitter Spaces: Stablecoins, USAT launch, OCC oversight, and the 2026 outlook

Participants and roles

Nathan (Co-founder and CEO, Anchorage Digital): Provided Anchorage’s platform overview, regulatory context, adoption outlook, institutional use cases, yield perspective, and on-chain asset flywheel.
Martin (Anchorage Digital leadership in stablecoin issuance): Led discussion on USAT launch significance, enterprise issuance rationale, banks’ adoption path, compliance and custody strengths, OCC oversight, multi-stable future, and next-wave products.
Sergio (Head of Stable at Anchorage Digital): Articulated the bank-centric thesis, “bank for banks” positioning, rethinking dollar dominance, and TradFi–DeFi convergence.
Chuck Poligo (Moderator): Framed topics, adoption trajectories, and tied Anchorage’s role to broader market evolution.
Joe (Host): Logistics, pinned resources, and closing.

Context and objectives of the session

Purpose: Address questions on USAT (a newly announced, US-compliant stablecoin launched with Tether), Anchorage Digital’s role in stablecoin issuance, regulatory clarity after the 2025 Genius Act, and the market trajectory into 2026.
Positioning: Anchorage Digital described itself as the first federally regulated stablecoin platform, operating under an OCC national bank charter, and serving institutional custody, trading, settlement, and stablecoin issuance infrastructure.

What Anchorage Digital does in stablecoins (Nathan)

Platform scope: Institutional custody, trading, and settlement services, plus a full-stack stablecoin issuance infrastructure for named issuers.
Regulatory foundation: Operates under a national bank charter with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), providing prudential and operational oversight to both custody and issuance services.

USAT launch and why it matters (Martin, Nathan)

Significance: USAT marks Tether’s entry into US-compliant issuance under federal oversight, exemplifying the regulatory clarity that the Genius Act unlocked and the OCC now provides for stablecoins.
Industry impact: Stablecoins already approach roughly $300B outstanding (~1.5% of US dollar M2), driven by trading, cross-border use, and emerging-market dollarization. Regulatory clarity brings mainstream enterprises and institutions into the fold, enabling audited, explainable adoption.
Ambition: USAT aims to serve both institutional and retail use cases across the US while connecting to the broader Tether ecosystem.

Why enterprises (and potentially brands) issue their own stablecoins (Martin)

Banking-as-a-Service 3.0: Stablecoins replatform dollars on programmable, globally accessible, auditable rails via standard APIs.
Economics: Issuers earn income on reserves backing the stablecoin; moving third-party flows to first-party issuance captures revenue that previously accrued to intermediaries.
Control: Issuers determine features, branding, distribution, and integration; manage where their stablecoin is supported and features it offers.
Risk/complexity reduction: Compared to gift cards or legacy stored-value programs, stablecoin programs simplify operations and compliance when properly overseen.
Scale and diversity: Expect a multi-stable future with thousands of issuers (with ~20 major “ABC” coins at the top and a long tail including global brands). Example framing: If Starbucks were starting today, a stablecoin-powered loyalty program would be more controllable and scalable.

The role of banks and Anchorage’s “bank for banks” thesis (Sergio)

Overlay, not disintermediation: Stablecoins will reinforce, not replace, the financial system—banks remain the backbone and interface between core and peripheral financial infrastructure.
Settlement networks: Named stablecoins across chains are akin to “a SWIFT within SWIFT”—interoperable settlement networks overlaying global blockchain liquidity.
Anchorage’s positioning: Be the bank for banks—combining federally regulated stablecoins (accepted as money at the federal level) with core banking infrastructure, custody, and settlement services.

Anchorage’s capabilities and value to target segments (Martin)

Cybersecurity and custody: Stablecoins are bearer assets—private key control equals ownership. Anchorage brings nearly a decade of institutional crypto custody experience for secure key management and operational processes.
Compliance on public blockchains: Stablecoins are “cash-plus”—they retain cash-like features with on-chain traceability. Anchorage leverages mature tools and processes to minimize compliance risk in public ledger contexts.
Regulatory clarity: Issuance under Anchorage’s OCC charter offers trusted oversight and institutional-grade compliance.
Beyond table stakes (2026 focus): Interbank settlement infra, reserve management optimization, and deeper integration into crypto ecosystems.
Analogy: Like choosing AWS over running your own bare-metal servers—specialized teams continually optimize reliability, cost, and feature depth.

Regulatory landscape: the OCC’s centrality and competitive market (Martin, Nathan)

Why OCC oversight matters: Stablecoin failures often stem from opaque banking, reserve operations, and bridging processes—OCC’s prudential + operational oversight builds trust and protects holders.
Historical context: Abraham Lincoln established the OCC to regulate bank-issued paper currency; aligning stablecoin oversight with the Comptroller of the Currency is historically and functionally fitting.
Multi-provider market: Recent OCC charters (e.g., Fidelity’s digital dollar announcement) signal a competitive, portable market where enterprises can choose the best service and switch if needed. Some clients may pursue their own OCC charters over time.

Adoption outlook for 2026 and beyond (Nathan, Martin, Sergio, Chuck)

Near-term drivers: Trading, cross-border payments, and emerging-market dollarization (akin to eurodollar dynamics) remain the largest growth engines.
US adoption ramp: Will begin in 2026 under the Genius Act’s clarity, likely slow at first due to short lead times, then accelerate. By end-2026 it may still be a smaller share, but 2027–2028 should see meaningful replatforming of US M2 onto stablecoin rails.
Macro framing (Sergio): Rethink “dollar dominance”—don’t only measure foreign central bank reserves. Stablecoins prove substantial USD activity across commercial banks, traders, retail, and merchants. Expect hundreds of billions moving to trillions, strengthening the dollar’s global role.
Long-term trajectory: Stablecoins as a 10x-better dollar product, with the market advancing well into the trillions as oversight and utility compound.

What’s underhyped vs. overhyped right now

Underhyped
- Banks’ central role (Sergio): Traditional finance will drive the next trillion(s) in stablecoin supply; banks are now comfortable entering via regulated rails.
- Adoption scale (Martin): From single-digit billions five years ago to ~300B now—extrapolating another five years suggests significant portions of dollars as stablecoins.
- Institutional use cases (Nathan): The “boring” but massive: tri-party repo, collateral management, bank‑to‑bank settlement. 24/7 programmable settlement will be transformative.
Overhyped
- Individual stablecoin brands (Sergio): It’s the aggregate of interoperable settlement networks that matters more than any single coin.
- Retail, self-custody centric models (Martin): The lion’s share of growth will be via custodial platforms in existing finance; “fintech in front, crypto in back” will dominate user experiences.
- Yield (Nathan): The fixation on yield is disproportionate—the dollar product’s utility is paramount, and the dollar “pays” via its foundational role and utility rather than yield alone.

Beyond cash: other assets coming on-chain (Nathan, Sergio, Martin)

Stablecoins as first scaled asset: All the advantages—24/7 settlement, global reach, programmable control—apply to bonds, equities, and other instruments.
SEC–DTCC momentum: The SEC’s no-action letter to DTCC to put assets on-chain is a likely catalyst—more assets on-chain will create a flywheel: on-chain assets drive demand for stablecoins, which in turn drive more assets on-chain.
Next major AUM story (Martin): Margin facilities (e.g., Aave, Morpho, Euler) bridging into TradFi; private credit and both public/private securities synchronization are opening floodgates.
Convergence (Sergio): No hard boundary between TradFi and DeFi—it’s a gradual assimilation of instruments and regulated approaches to harness the best of both.

Anchorage’s view on the market’s turning point (Nathan)

From pilots to conviction: Since 2017, the industry has matured from experimental pilots to well-funded, capable teams with decade-long investment horizons.
Scalability and clarity: Regulatory clarity and institutional mindshare signal that change is inevitable; large financial institutions are committing to long-term adoption of digital asset rails.

Resources and closing

USAT announcement: Blog post pinned in the Space (referenced by Joe).
Follow for updates: Sergio’s handle mentioned by Joe—@SergioFly.
Closing: Thanks from all speakers; session wrapped with encouragement to learn more via Anchorage Digital’s channels.