Tether (USDT)

Launched in October 2014 as Realcoin and later rebranded, Tether (USDT) pioneered the concept of a blockchain-based stablecoin pegged one-to-one to the U.S. dollar. By offering a digital dollar that can move at crypto speeds while avoiding the volatility of other tokens, it has become the de facto settlement layer for exchanges, traders, and payment providers worldwide.

While the first USDT tokens were issued on the Bitcoin network’s Omni Layer, Tether is now minted on a broad spectrum of chains—including Ethereum (ERC-20), Tron (TRC-20), Solana, Polygon, Avalanche, Algorand, Liquid, Near, Tezos, Polkadot AssetHub, and more—allowing users to choose the fee level and functionality that suits them. Tokens are fungible across networks: 1 USDT on Ethereum is always redeemable for 1 USDT on Tron, and older implementations, such as Omni, are gradually being phased out in favor of newer, higher-throughput rails.

Tether Limited states that every USDT is fully backed by a reserve portfolio, now dominated by short-term U.S. Treasury bills, cash, and other cash equivalents, with smaller allocations to assets such as gold and Bitcoin. An independent accounting firm, BDO, provides quarterly attestations of these reserves, adding an extra layer of external verification, even though a full audit has yet to be completed. Thanks to its dollar peg, multi-chain reach, and liquidity, USDT underpins most cryptocurrency trading pairs, powers cross-border remittances, and serves as collateral throughout the DeFi ecosystem.