The Trump administration is considering an initiative to promote dollar-backed stablecoins in overseas markets through joint ventures between the U.S. government and private-sector firms, according to a Bloomberg report published Wednesday, citing people familiar with the plans. Washington wants the rest of the world running on digital dollars, and is now reportedly willing to go into business to make that happen.

The reported effort could pull in multiple federal agencies, including the Treasury Department, the State Department, and the U.S. International Development Finance Corp. (DFC), the government's arm for co-investing with private companies on projects that serve American foreign policy goals — an institution whose activity has traditionally centered on development financing overseas rather than digital-asset promotion. The DFC is run by Ben Black, son of Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon Black.

According to the people familiar with the plans, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the goal is twofold: keep foreign users transacting in dollars, and generate fresh buyers for U.S. Treasuries. The underlying aim is to reinforce the dollar's status as the world's reserve asset as other countries build their own digital payment rails.

Stablecoins are crypto tokens designed to hold a steady 1:1 value with a reference currency, typically by keeping the equivalent amount in cash and short-term government debt in reserve. That reserve structure is central to the strategy: more stablecoins circulating abroad means more issuers parking money in U.S. government debt.

The effort is not unfolding in a vacuum. The GENIUS Act, the federal stablecoin law that Trump signed last year, already issuers to back every token with reserves such as cash and short-dated Treasuries. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has made the pitch explicitly before, framing stablecoins as a tool that locks in dollar supremacy rather than a threat to it.

Deputy Treasury Secretary Francis Brooke said this week that stablecoin issuers already hold close to $200 billion in Treasury bills, a number the administration would presumably like to see climb, and one the plan is designed to grow.

The plans have not been formally announced, and the reporting does not name which private firms might take part or how any joint ventures would be structured. For now, the administration's direction is visible mainly in officials' public comments and in the reserve requirements the GENIUS Act already imposes.

For people who send money home from abroad, buy goods online priced in dollars, or live somewhere the local currency loses value quickly, stablecoins can serve as a tool for financial stability. Washington effectively becoming a business partner in that pipeline would mean U.S. foreign policy and dollar strategy are baked directly into the payment and remittance infrastructure ordinary users already rely on.

The initiative also reflects a broader race around sovereign digital money. China has floated its own digital yuan, the European Central Bank is pressing ahead with a digital euro, and BRICS countries have expressed interest in exploring the possibility. Unlike the reported U.S. approach, these state-led competitors do not want private businesses involved in their monetary policies.

China has officially banned stablecoins. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde has separately pushed back on euro-denominated stablecoins as a competing strategy, calling them an inefficient way to boost the euro's global reach.

Source: Decrypt