Key Takeaways
Atlas plans to launch USAFi in Q3 2026 below Dubai VARA as an ETF-backed token.Nouriel Roubini backs USAFi, signaling rising institutional assist for tokenization.USAFi will use Nasdaq-listed USAF reserves, focusing on DeFi entry and worth preservation.
Nouriel Roubini Backs USAFi Token Launch After Years of Crypto Criticism
Nouriel Roubini, the economist lengthy identified for his sharp criticism of cryptocurrencies, is coming into digital property by means of Atlas Capital Staff’s deliberate launch of USAFi, a regulated token backed by real-world monetary property.
Atlas Capital Staff and its Dubai subsidiary, Atlas AI Labs, printed a whitepaper co-authored by Roubini that outlines USAFi and a broader thesis the agency calls the “Technodollar.” The idea frames the subsequent part of greenback dominance round synthetic intelligence (AI), digital infrastructure, and tokenized reserve property.
USAFi is scheduled to launch in Q3 2026 below Dubai’s Digital Belongings Regulatory Authority (VARA). Atlas stated the token might be issued below VARA’s Asset Referenced Digital Asset Rulebook.
ETF-Backed Token Targets Permissionless Finance
Atlas describes USAFi as the primary regulated permissionless safety. The product is designed as an ERC-20 token that may commerce on permissionless chains whereas being backed by the Atlas America Fund, an SEC-registered, actively managed ETF listed on Nasdaq.
The fund’s reserve property are custodied on the Financial institution of New York. Atlas stated the construction is meant to convey institutional-grade collateral into decentralized finance whereas holding 24/7 portability and onchain entry.
Roubini stated his shift from criticism to participation displays the distinction between speculative tokens and property backed by diversified reserves. He commented:
VARA has developed a framework that embraces accountable innovation whereas sustaining the transparency and investor safety that institutional markets require.
Atlas Pitches the ‘Technodollar’
Atlas stated USAFi is constructed round reserves diversified throughout Treasuries, gold, meals, and strategic commodities, protection, cybersecurity, and industries being reshaped by AI.
Reza Bundy, Atlas Capital Staff’s chairman and CEO, stated the greenback has moved from the Gold Greenback to the Petrodollar and is now coming into a 3rd part. He described the Technodollar as a digital reserve backed by publicity to America’s most efficient AI-linked industries fairly than a single commodity. Bundy stated:
Atlas is an agentic, digital reserve infrastructure: AI runs the portfolio day after day inside the guidelines our Funding Committee units, the Committee makes the choices, and we tokenize the instrument so it may be held and traded on chain.
For Atlas, USAFi is a wager that the subsequent wave of tokenization won’t be constructed solely round stablecoins that transfer {dollars}, however round regulated digital property designed to protect buying energy.
