USAD represents programmable, privacy-preserving digital dollars built for real-world payments, applications, and on-chain commerce
Paxos Labs, the enterprise infrastructure platform for embedded on-chain finance, and the Aleo Network Foundation, the non-profit organization supporting the Aleo Network, announced that USAD, a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin 1:1 backed by compliant USDG reserves, is now live on Aleo mainnet. USAD is the first stablecoin issued on a Layer 1 blockchain that combines smart contract programmability with privacy by default.
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“With USAD live on Aleo mainnet, we’re unlocking digital dollars that can actually be used in the real world,” said Leena Im, Chief Operating Officer of the Aleo Network Foundation.
Enabling confidential, application-ready digital dollar transactions across payments, financial workflows, consumer and institutional use cases. Addressing data privacy concerns that have limited transparent blockchain adoption in regulated and enterprise environments.
Issued through Paxos Labs’ stablecoin issuance framework and built on Aleo’s zero-knowledge (ZK) blockchain, USAD encrypts wallet addresses and transaction amounts end-to-end. This architecture allows developers and organizations to deploy digital dollars without exposing sensitive financial data on public ledgers, while maintaining the operational assurances required for scalable, real-world deployment.
USAD leverages Paxos Labs’ institutional-grade digital asset infrastructure, including asset backing, reserve management, and operational controls refined through Paxos’s stablecoin operations. Combined with Aleo’s privacy-by-default design, USAD enables practical on-chain dollar use across commerce, treasury operations, cross-border payments, payroll, humanitarian aid, and other consumer applications, without forcing users to trade confidentiality for functionality.
“With USAD live on Aleo mainnet, we’re unlocking digital dollars that can actually be used in the real world,” said Leena Im, Chief Operating Officer of the Aleo Network Foundation. “Aleo’s zero-knowledge architecture combined with Paxos Labs’ institutional infrastructure, allows developers, enterprises, and organizations to build programmable payment flows and financial applications that protect user data, reduce unnecessary exposure, and scale to production environments.”
Unlike conventional stablecoins that expose transaction details on public blockchains, USAD is private by design, significantly reducing risks related to data leakage, transaction surveillance, and the misuse of sensitive financial information. Aleo’s programmable privacy also enables flexible disclosure models, allowing applications to reveal information selectively when needed, without sacrificing confidentiality by default.
“Privacy has become a critical requirement for institutional stablecoin adoption, yet most stablecoin infrastructure wasn’t designed with confidential transactions in mind,” said Bhau Kotecha, Co-founder of Paxos Labs. “USAD showcases how Paxos Labs’ issuance platform can support diverse blockchain architectures, from transparent public ledgers to privacy-preserving networks. Giving organizations flexibility to deploy digital dollars that meet their specific regulatory and user privacy requirements.”
Stablecoin adoption continues to accelerate, with global transaction volumes reaching approximately $33 trillion in 2025, surpassing the combined annual volumes of Visa and Mastercard. Recent regulatory momentum from the passage of the GENIUS Act in July 2025, and Paxos’s OCC approval has given U.S. lawmakers a framework for stablecoin oversight and is driving broader adoption across consumer payments, commercial markets, and public-interest use cases that require efficiency, privacy, and reliability at scale.
Paxos Labs operates as a spinout from Paxos, an OCC chartered blockchain infrastructure, powering crypto brokerage, orchestration and tokenization for platforms such as Mastercard, Stripe, PayPal and other such financial institutions. The USAD launch builds on the Aleo Network Foundation’s participation in the Global Dollar Network (GDN), a Paxos-founded consortium supporting the responsible expansion of digital dollars and shared industry standards.
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