What is Tether (USDT)?
Tether (USDT) is a stablecoin designed to hold a value of one US dollar, issued by the company Tether since 2014. Having started on Bitcoin's Omni Layer, it has since expanded to many blockchains, including Ethereum, TRON, Solana and others.
- Type
- Fiat-backed stablecoin
- Launched
- 2014
- Consensus
- Inherits the consensus of each host blockchain
- Max supply
- No fixed cap (minted and redeemed on demand)
- Swap network
- Ethereum
- Sector (Messari)
- Stablecoins
How Tether works
Tether creates new USDT when verified customers deposit dollars and redeems tokens for dollars when they are returned, so the supply follows demand. The company reports holding reserve assets, mainly US Treasury bills and cash equivalents, to back the tokens in circulation and publishes periodic attestations of those reserves.
What USDT is used for
Traders use USDT to park funds between trades and as a quote currency on exchanges around the world. It is also common for cross-border payments and for saving in dollars in places with volatile local currencies.
USDT supply
There is no fixed supply: tokens are minted when dollars come in and burned when they are redeemed. The goal is for each USDT to be backed by reserves worth at least one dollar.
Before you swap USDT
USDT exists on many networks, and the swap widget defaults to the Ethereum version, so confirm the selected network matches the chain of your wallet before sending or receiving. Sending USDT over the wrong network can make funds difficult or impossible to recover.