Tether, the company behind the world’s largest stablecoin, is teaming up with the Government of Georgia to launch a new digital token pegged to the Georgian Lari. The token, called GEL₮ (or GELT), represents something genuinely novel: a stablecoin issued with direct government partnership and a bespoke regulatory framework built specifically for it.
What GELT actually is and how it works
GELT is designed as a 1:1 peg to the Georgian Lari, the national currency of a country with roughly 3.9 million people nestled between Europe and Asia.
The token is built to lower transaction costs, enable near-instant settlements, support programmable payments, and smooth cross-border commerce.
The regulatory foundation was laid months before the announcement. The National Bank of Georgia issued stablecoin-specific regulations around early March 2026, establishing rules around full reserve backing, strict liquidity standards, redemption rights, and anti-money laundering compliance. Every GELT token must be backed by real, high-quality reserves, users can redeem their tokens for actual Lari, and the whole system has to play by the same rules as traditional finance when it comes to preventing illicit activity. The NBG will maintain ongoing regulatory oversight, and any entity looking to issue stablecoins under this framework needs prior consent from the central bank.
