Bitfinex Securities announced it will restart issuing USDT-denominated tokenized bonds for Luxembourg-based securitization fund ALTERNATIVE, with future offerings expected to top $10 million. The bonds will be issued and settled on the Liquid Network, a Bitcoin sidechain, with fundraising, coupon payments and principal redemptions all handled onchain.
The relaunch builds on four previous tokenized bond issuances since 2023 that together raised $6.2 million; three of those offerings have already matured and been repaid. By the end of the program’s first full bond cycle in 2025, investors had received 20 onchain coupon payments totaling more than $1.1 million. The securities are designed to provide exposure to emerging-market private credit and to finance small and medium-sized businesses, including women-led enterprises.
Bitfinex Securities, which holds licenses in the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) and El Salvador, manages issuance, listing and secondary-market trading for the program. Tether’s Hadron platform supports token management for the bonds; Hadron currently lists roughly $250 million in regulated tokenized securities.
According to Jesse Knutson, head of operations at Bitfinex, buyers have mostly been high-net-worth crypto investors and crypto-focused institutions from Europe and Asia seeking yield on their USDT holdings. The tokenized bonds are offered alongside the issuer’s conventional monthly bond program, typically carry an 11-month duration, and are recorded on Liquid with key settlement details protected by the chain’s confidential transaction features.
Knutson described the product as a straightforward, regulated vehicle for earning yield on USDT balances, noting growing market interest in yield-generating stablecoin alternatives.
Regulatory and market context
The relaunch comes amid a broader debate over stablecoin yield and how such products should be regulated in the United States. The GENIUS Act, enacted in July 2025, barred stablecoin issuers from paying yield directly but did not explicitly prohibit third parties from offering returns through separate instruments. That regulatory gap has enabled exchanges and other platforms to structure securities or lending products that deliver yield denominated in stablecoins without the stablecoin issuer itself distributing interest.
Banks and some policymakers have warned that high-yield stablecoin products could pull deposits from the traditional banking system. In January, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan warned that interest-bearing stablecoins could potentially divert as much as $6 trillion in deposits away from US banks, which, he argued, could reduce lending capacity and raise funding costs.
Stablecoin yield has also been a central point of contention in debates over the proposed CLARITY Act, aimed at creating a broader regulatory framework for digital assets. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong withdrew support for the CLARITY Act in January, citing stablecoin yield issues as a key sticking point. Still, some lawmakers have signaled optimism about reaching market-structure legislation; in February, Senator Bernie Moreno expressed hope that Congress could advance related legislation in the coming months.
Prediction market pricing on Polymarket assigns roughly a 70% probability that the CLARITY Act will be signed into law in 2026, reflecting continued uncertainty about the final regulatory approach.
This report follows standard editorial practices. Readers are encouraged to verify details independently and consult primary sources and regulatory guidance when evaluating tokenized securities or stablecoin yield products.