Stablecoin issuers are top-20 holders of US debt. Washington wants more of it

Stablecoin issuers hold close to $200 billion of short-term US government debt. That puts them inside the top twenty holders of American sovereign debt, ahead of the reserves of several large countries. Now the Trump administration is weighing how to grow that figure on purpose: Bloomberg reported that it is considering joint ventures with private companies to push dollar-backed stablecoins overseas.

How exporting a stablecoin funds a deficit

Under the GENIUS Act, signed in July 2025, an issuer has to back each token with dollars and short-term Treasuries. A buyer in Lagos or Manila who picks up USDT hands an issuer dollars, and the issuer parks them in Treasury bills. A new holder abroad turns into an indirect lender to the US government, without opening an American bank account and without any official selling them a bond.

The numbers behind the plan

• Issuer holdings of short-term US government debt: close to $200 billion
• Position among holders of US sovereign debt: inside the top 20
• Stablecoin market value: $292.49 billion, with USDT and USDC at almost 90% of it

Who would run it

Treasury and the State Department could take the lead roles, alongside the US International Development Finance Corporation. Deputy Treasury Secretary Francis Brooke put issuer holdings near $200 billion on Tuesday, and CoinDesk notes those holdings already exceed what several major nations keep in reserves.

“Dollar-backed stablecoins are a tool supporting the dollar's dominance, and the dollar accounts for nearly 90% of foreign exchange transactions”

— Scott Bessent, US Treasury Secretary, in the wording of press reports on his remarks

Quote source: BTC-ECHO and reporting on the Bloomberg story, 24 September 2026.

The part nobody has settled

No agency has announced a programme. The reporting names no companies, no target countries, no dollar amounts and no timeline. The strategy predates this week as well: Trump made worldwide promotion of legal dollar stablecoins an aim by executive order shortly after taking office, and the current plans reach past domestic regulation into other countries' monetary systems.

The other side, per the IMF

The IMF has warned that heavy use of dollar stablecoins can undercut local currencies and narrow what policymakers in emerging economies control. A saver in Nigeria or Argentina who moves into USDT does on a phone what capital controls were built to stop. We covered Circle's president telling Congress that dollar stablecoins protect US dominance, and separately China banning yuan stablecoins outright while holding 190,000 bitcoin. That makes three governments with three different answers.

The plan also meets the question of where those dollars already live. About $95 billion of stablecoins sit on Tron by our September count, close to a third of the whole market, and that network answers to nobody in Washington. Exporting dollar tokens means issuing them onto rails the US does not write rules for, which is a different problem from the one the GENIUS Act solved at home.

Watch for the first named partner or the first named country. Until one of them appears, this is an intention with $200 billion already sitting in the right place.

Treat this as information, not as advice on holding any currency or token.