Bo Hines , the former White House crypto advisor now leading the crypto giant Tether 's U.S. subsidiary, has revealed a new plan regarding the purchases of U.S. Treasury Bills.
Tether is a major crypto company that is best known for its flagship USDT stablecoin.
Last month, Tether also launched USAT, the federally regulated, USD-backed stablecoin developed specifically to operate within the U.S.'s new federal stablecoin framework established under the GENIUS Act.
Related: Explained: What is a stablecoin?
A stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency that tries to stabilize its value by being pegged to a "stable" asset like a fiat currency or a commodity.
Both USDT and USAT are stablecoins pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar and backed by reserves like U.S. Treasury Bills.
Tether could be among top 10 U.S. Treasury Bill buyers this year, Hines says
Hines thinks that increasing demand for both USDT and USAT stablecoins could drive Tether to ramp up its U.S. Treasury Bill purchases in 2026.
"This year, I think we'll end up being a top 10 purchaser of T-bills."
The Tether USAT CEO made the remark while speaking at the Bitcoin Investor Week conference in New York on Feb. 11.
In fact, 83.11% of Tether's reserves are in T-bills, with $122.32 billion worth of the U.S. government debt securities as of Dec. 31, 2025, according to the attestation .
Tether is already among the largest 20 T-bill holders, "including all sovereign states," Hines added.
Tether, with over $122 billion worth of T-bills, is far ahead of countries like Germany ($109.8 billion) and Israel ($107.7 billion) when it comes to holdings of U.S. Treasuries.
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"We're obviously increasing the amount of T-bills we have in our reserves as we move towards this GENIUS compliance standard," Hines said.
Notably, he is said to have played a major role in the progress on the GENIUS Act as the former executive director of the White House Crypto Council under President Donald Trump.
Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law in July last year, and Hines stepped down from the role a month later.
The GENIUS Act mandates that every regulated USD-pegged stablecoin should be backed 1:1 by dollar holdings like short-term U.S. Treasury Bills. This is why Hines sounds certain about Tether becoming among the top 10 purchasers of T-bills.
As far as USDT and USAT are concerned, Hines said there will be "reciprocity" between the two.
"It's just Tether at the end of the day,"he added.
As per the onchain analytics platform DeFiLlama , the total stablecoin market cap is $307.456b at press time.
With a market cap of $183.94 billion, USDT is the world's largest stablecoin and accounts for 59.83% of the total stablecoin market.
Related: Tether appoints former White House crypto director Bo Hines as strategic advisor
This story was originally published by TheStreet on Feb 12, 2026, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
