Washington weighs joint stablecoin ventures abroad to add buyers for Treasury bills

Deputy Treasury Secretary Francis Brooke's nearly $200 billion, set against the roughly $311 billion of dollar-pegged tokens that DeFiLlama counts in circulation, comes to about 64 cents of every stablecoin dollar held in bills and near-dated Treasuries ^[4][6][1]. The Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee found a lower share for the two largest issuers in February. T-bills were 53% of Tether and Circle assets on data through September 2025, after the pair added $70 billion of bills since 2022 ^[8]. The two measures differ (bills alone against bills plus other close-to-maturity paper, on different dates), so the range is 53 to 64 cents.

The same presentation set the condition for any of it to count as new demand. Stablecoin growth could lift demand for short-term Treasury issuance when adoption comes from offshore users who were not previously holding dollars, the committee found ^[7]. A saver abroad who trades local currency for a token adds a bill buyer. A company that moves an existing dollar deposit into a token mostly changes which intermediary holds the bills. Brooke's figure is a stock built across the whole sector and includes no purchases tied to the overseas plan, crypto.news noted ^[15].

Selling abroad targets the one group the committee identified as net new buyers ^[7]. At the observed ratios, each $100 billion of tokens sold to people who held no dollars before would add roughly $53 billion to $64 billion of short-dated Treasury demand ^[2].

The joint venture is the new term. Trump's January 2025 executive order already called for "the development and growth of lawful and legitimate dollar-backed stablecoins worldwide" ^[13]. Bessent said in July 2025 that stablecoins "will buttress the dollar's status as the global reserve currency, expand access to the dollar economy for billions across the globe, and lead to a surge in demand for US Treasuries, which back stablecoins" ^[12]. A venture adds government capital, through a DFC that now has expanded equity authority ^[11]. Such a stake would make Washington part-owner of an issuer whose reserves, on the ratios above, are more than half Washington's own short-term debt ^[1][8].

The ventures could stay small, with holdings growing on the statute alone once its main issuance restrictions take effect on Jan. 18, 2027 ^[10]. "As the rules implementing the GENIUS Act are finalized, we may see stablecoin providers continue to grow and add to their holdings of Treasury securities," Brooke said ^[5]. They could instead reach users new to dollars, and the bill demand would be new. Or the tokens could mostly absorb dollars foreigners already hold, so issuers gain share and net bill demand barely moves.

I'd expect the last of those to lead early. A venture with revenue targets sells first to customers who already want dollars and already hold them. The counter-case is that the State Department involvement Bloomberg's sources described, plus DFC capital, could open markets private issuers cannot enter alone ^[1]. The view fails if the first named venture lands in a market with little prior dollar access and a later committee analysis credits issuer growth to offshore users new to dollars.