USDT

USDT is the ticker under which Tether issues its US dollar pegged stablecoin. Rather than living on a single chain, USDT is minted as dozens of separate token contracts across many networks, all sharing the same name, the same dollar peg, and the same issuer, but each one is technically a distinct asset that only exists on its own blockchain.

The two largest deployments are on Ethereum, using the ERC-20 standard, and on Tron, using TRC-20, which together account for the large majority of circulating supply. Smaller but growing deployments run on Solana, BNB Chain, TON, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Base, and several other networks, each with its own contract address, gas token, and fee profile. Because the contracts cannot communicate with each other directly, moving USDT from one chain to another requires either a centralized exchange or a blockchain bridge that burns tokens on one side and mints them on the other.

This multi-chain structure is convenient, Tron transfers settle in seconds for a fraction of a cent while Ethereum offers deeper DeFi integration, but it also creates a well-known risk: sending USDT to an address using the wrong network's withdrawal method can result in permanently lost funds, since the receiving chain never recognizes the deposit.

USDT remains the largest stablecoin by circulating supply, with Tether publishing periodic attestations of the cash and short-term Treasury reserves backing each token in circulation.