Image credit: Shutterstock
Key Takeaways
- Tether led a $7 million Series A round in Pact Labs, joined by Blockchange Ventures and Lasagna, to expand USA₮ into U.S. payroll and consumer payments.
- Pact Labs’ infrastructure enables real-time wage access, targeting a U.S. payroll system that moves more than $11 trillion annually on outdated technology.
- USA₮, issued by Anchorage Digital Bank in collaboration with Tether, had a supply exceeding $140 million as of its April attestation, far smaller than USDT.
Tether has led a $7 million Series A funding round in Pact Labs, a payment infrastructure startup, to expand use of USA₮, the company’s U.S.-focused stablecoin, across payroll, earned wage access, credit and everyday consumer payments. Blockchange Ventures and Lasagna also participated in the round.
Deal Targets The U.S. Payroll Market
Pact Labs builds wallet, payment and smart contract infrastructure that connects the PACT Protocol to fintech platforms and their users. The company’s integrations have facilitated more than $1.9 billion in credit across emerging markets and already powers compliant onchain payroll infrastructure through a partnership with Payactiv, according to a Pact Labs funding disclosure.
The investment is aimed at making Pact Labs a core infrastructure provider for USA₮ across those categories. Tether said the U.S. payroll system moves more than $11 trillion annually, but much of its underlying infrastructure predates modern payment technology, leaving workers waiting days or weeks to access wages they have already earned.
How The Integration Would Work
Pact Labs’ infrastructure lets enterprise platforms embed digital wallets and move wages in real time rather than waiting on standard biweekly or monthly payroll cycles. Tether said faster settlement could reduce the overdraft fees and short-term borrowing costs that often result when workers cannot access earned wages before a scheduled payday.
USA₮ is a dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank and developed in collaboration with Tether specifically for the U.S. market, distinct from Tether’s flagship USDT token, which is not available to domestic U.S. customers. USA₮’s supply exceeded $140 million as of Tether’s most recent published attestation in April, a fraction of USDT’s size but positioned around a U.S.-compliant strategy rather than USDT’s global retail focus.
Executives Frame The Deal As A Strategic Shift
Bo Hines, chief executive of Tether USA₮, said the investment gives the stablecoin a direct route to American workers. He stated:
“Pact Labs gives us the rails to make digital dollars designed to be compliant with U.S. regulations directly into the hands of millions of American workers, faster, cheaper, and without the intermediaries that slow them down.”
Tether Chief Executive Paolo Ardoino tied the move to the company’s experience with USDT in other markets, saying:
“Workers in emerging markets have used USD₮ to bridge payroll gaps for years because their domestic systems failed them first. We are now building the same capability into the U.S. market, with USA₮, because even a functional system built on batch processing means unnecessary costs for the people who can least absorb them.”
Part Of A Broader Push Beyond Trading Infrastructure
The Pact Labs round follows a pattern of Tether investments aimed at payment distribution rather than stablecoin issuance alone, including a recent $20 million strategic financing round for Latin American crypto platform Mercado Bitcoin. The deal comes as U.S. lawmakers continue shaping the regulatory framework for dollar-backed stablecoins under the GENIUS Act, and as competition intensifies among banks, fintechs and other stablecoin issuers pursuing faster settlement products.
