Nouriel Roubini, the economist who built a career warning about financial bubbles and once called Bitcoin the “mother of all scams,” is now launching a blockchain-based token. The USAF+ token, issued by Atlas AI Labs, is fully collateralized by Roubini’s own Atlas America Fund ETF, which trades on Nasdaq under the ticker USAF.
Atlas AI Labs, a subsidiary of Atlas Capital Team based in Dubai, received in-principle approval from the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) to issue the permissionless asset-backed token. The approval allows USAF+ to trade and settle around the clock on blockchain infrastructure, no intermediaries required.
From Dr. Doom to DeFi convert
Roubini first entered the asset management world with the Atlas America Fund, which launched on November 20, 2024, on Nasdaq. The actively managed, multi-asset ETF bundles US Treasury bonds, gold, real estate investment trusts, and food commodities into a single vehicle designed to weather economic turbulence.
The fund is managed by Roubini alongside Carlo Zola and Puneet Agarwal. It marked Roubini’s first venture into the ETF space, a notable departure for an academic economist better known for forecasting the 2008 financial crisis than for building investment products.
