USAT: who controls it?

The control finding

Anchorage Digital Bank issues and redeems USAT for bank clients, administers a segregated reserve trust, and may delay, restrict, or refuse transactions for law, risk, or operations.

Backing

Reserve assets held for USAT through the bank’s disclosed reserve trust and custody framework.

Holder’s position

USAT is a bank-administered token claim, not an FDIC-insured deposit or direct ownership of the reserve trust.

Redemption or exit

Direct redemption is limited to eligible Anchorage clients and may be delayed, restricted, or refused under published policies.

Dependencies an advisor should record

• Anchorage Digital Bank
• Tether branding and commercial arrangement
• Reserve trust and custodians
• Bank-client eligibility

Material incident check

• No material control, reserve, or redemption incident was identified in the reviewed sources.

Why this distinction matters

Record Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A., under the USAT arrangement with Tether as the controlling party, verify direct-redemption eligibility, and do not treat an on-chain balance as eliminating reserve, custody, contract, or legal dependencies.

A named organization or administrator controls issuance, transfers, reserves, redemption, or address restrictions. That finding can coexist with a sound reserve, useful product, or appropriate client role. The grade prevents the on-chain wrapper from being mistaken for the absence of an administrator.

Questions before use

1. Does the exact contract and chain match the instrument reviewed here?
2. Which party can mint, burn, pause, upgrade, block, or redeem?
3. Does the client have direct redemption access or only secondary liquidity?
4. What protocol, bridge, wallet, and custodian dependencies are added?
5. Which event would force review or exit?