U.S. weighs overseas stablecoin push for Treasury demand

The U.S. government has reportedly begun considering ways to support dollar-denominated stablecoin projects overseas as officials look to expand international dollar use and create another source of demand for U.S. Treasury securities.

Bloomberg reported on Sept. 23 that the Trump administration is discussing possible public-private stablecoin ventures involving agencies including the Treasury Department, State Department and U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. People familiar with the discussions said the initiative remains under consideration, and no specific country, company, funding amount or launch date has been disclosed.

The reported proposal has not yet appeared as a formal program in public releases from the three agencies. Existing official policy, however, already treats stablecoins as a potential channel for extending dollar use and increasing demand for short-dated U.S. government debt.

U.S. stablecoin policy already links tokens with Treasury demand

Treasury officials have publicly made the Treasury-demand argument for more than a year.

When President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act in July 2025, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said dollar stablecoins could strengthen the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency and create additional Treasury demand because eligible reserve assets include government securities. His statement described stablecoins as an internet-based dollar payment rail, though future market growth remains uncertain.

Treasury Deputy Secretary Francis Brooke gave a more current measure on Sept. 22. Speaking at the Treasury Market Conference, Brooke said stablecoin providers already own nearly $200 billion in Treasury bills and other securities close to maturity. He added that Treasury “may see stablecoin providers continue to grow and add to their holdings” as GENIUS Act rules are completed.

The $200 billion figure covers the stablecoin sector as a source of Treasury demand and does not represent new purchases tied to the Bloomberg-reported overseas initiative. No such government-backed foreign project has been announced.

A Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee presentation from February had already examined the same mechanism. The analysis found that stablecoin growth could increase demand for short-term Treasury issuance when adoption comes from offshore users who were not previously holding dollars. The presentation estimated Tether and Circle had increased T-bill holdings by $70 billion since 2022 and said T-bills represented 53% of their assets using data through September 2025.

The committee presentation described a possible market outcome, not a commitment by Treasury to promote any particular issuer or stablecoin.

GENIUS Act positions regulated stablecoins as a possible channel for extending dollar use while imposing reserve, licensing and disclosure requirements on issuers.

GENIUS Act sets the reserve structure behind the plan

The GENIUS Act provides the legal foundation that makes Treasury demand part of the stablecoin discussion.

Permitted payment stablecoin issuers must maintain reserves at least one-to-one against outstanding tokens. Eligible assets include U.S. dollars, certain bank deposits, short-term Treasury securities, qualifying repurchase agreements and money-market funds holding permitted reserve assets.

Treasury proposed another set of implementing rules on Aug. 17 defining when a payment stablecoin is considered issued, offered or sold in the United States. The department expects the statute’s main issuance restrictions to take effect Jan. 18, 2027 unless final regulations trigger an earlier date under the law.

The framework contains a separate route for foreign issuers. U.S. law permits certain overseas payment stablecoin companies to operate under comparable foreign supervisory systems once Treasury determines that the jurisdiction provides regulation comparable to the federal framework.

That foreign-issuer pathway is separate from Bloomberg’s report about the government potentially supporting stablecoin projects overseas. One concerns eligibility for U.S. distribution; the reported initiative concerns expanding dollar stablecoin use in foreign markets.

Treasury’s latest GENIUS Act proposal set out licensing and foreign-issuer requirements ahead of the federal framework’s rollout.

Implementation is still underway. Several federal regulators missed the law’s original one-year deadline for final rules, leaving proposals at different stages while the statutory framework moves toward activation. U.S. regulators missed key GENIUS Act rulemaking deadlines during 2026.

Tether and Circle show how stablecoin demand reaches Treasuries

The Treasury-demand mechanism can already be seen in reserve disclosures from the two largest dollar stablecoin issuers.

Tether reported roughly $141 billion in direct and indirect U.S. Treasury exposure at the end of March 2026. Its Q2 attestation later showed about $184.6 billion of USDT outstanding and $187.75 billion of total assets, with the company saying most reserves remained in government-backed instruments and short-term liquidity facilities.

The latest Q2 release did not give the same detailed Treasury total as Tether’s first-quarter disclosure, so the $141 billion figure should not be treated as its current September balance.

Circle presents a similar structure through USDC. Its second-quarter SEC filing showed that approximately 84% of USDC reserves were held in the Circle Reserve Fund as of June 30, with the rest primarily held as bank cash. The reserve fund invests in short-maturity U.S. government securities and related instruments.

Circle’s public data listed $74.6 billion of USDC in circulation as of Sept. 21. A Sept. 18 SEC filing for BlackRock’s Circle Reserve Fund confirmed that Circle entities hold shares in the fund as part of reserves associated with Circle-issued stablecoins. The filing noted that fund assets can rise or fall as stablecoins are minted and redeemed.

Those reserve structures help explain why U.S. policymakers frequently connect stablecoin adoption with Treasury demand. The scale of any additional demand from a government-backed overseas expansion would depend on adoption, issuer reserve composition and whether users are moving into dollar stablecoins from assets they already hold in dollars.

DFC could provide a public-private investment route

Bloomberg identified DFC as one agency that could participate if the administration moves forward with overseas stablecoin ventures.

DFC has legal tools that could support public-private investments, although it has not announced a stablecoin project tied to the reported discussions.

Congress expanded the agency’s authority in December 2025. DFC said its reauthorization raised its maximum investment exposure to $205 billion, created a $5 billion revolving equity fund and increased its permitted minority equity ownership to 40%. The law extended the agency through 2031 and expanded the countries where it can invest.

DFC describes itself as the U.S. government’s international investment arm and can use loans, equity, guarantees, insurance and investment funds alongside private companies. It has already created joint-venture structures in sectors including transport, critical minerals and infrastructure.

On Sept. 16, the agency approved more than $8 billion of new projects covering infrastructure, technology, energy and other strategic investments. The package included DFC’s largest digital infrastructure investment to date, involving African fiber and data-center operator WIOCC Group, but it did not contain a stablecoin initiative.

Any future stablecoin investment would still have to move through DFC’s project review process. The agency says transactions can require due diligence, internal approvals and congressional notification before commitment or closing.

Overseas adoption remains a reported proposal, not a launched program

The reported discussions fit with existing administration statements about using privately issued digital dollars to extend U.S. currency reach.

Treasury’s own research has described stablecoin providers as an emerging source of Treasury demand. Its February analysis said offshore growth among users who do not already hold dollar assets could produce incremental demand for short-term government securities.

The White House currently estimates the stablecoin market at around $300 billion in one September economic analysis. The same research notes that reserve composition determines how much stablecoin growth ultimately flows into Treasury securities instead of bank deposits or other eligible assets.

Foreign adoption would therefore not automatically translate dollar-for-dollar into new Treasury purchases. Some reserves may sit in cash, bank deposits, repo transactions or money-market funds, while users converting existing dollar assets into stablecoins may create less incremental dollar demand than users moving from another currency.

Treasury’s latest public remarks nevertheless show that officials are actively tracking stablecoin providers as Treasury investors. Brooke said on Sept. 22 that the department monitors structural demand from stablecoin companies alongside banks, money-market funds, foreign investors and the Federal Reserve.

The Bloomberg-reported initiative has no disclosed list of target countries, private-sector partners or funding commitments. Treasury, State and DFC have not publicly detailed a timetable for launching an overseas stablecoin partnership, while Treasury’s immediate regulatory work remains focused on completing GENIUS Act implementation ahead of the federal stablecoin regime’s expected start.