Tether Brings Its $140B USDT Stablecoin to Bitcoin and Lightning Networks

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Stablecoins are increasingly popular for everyday uses like payments, remittances and savings, and Tether’s expansion aims to spur activity to the Bitcoin-based ecosystem.

By Krisztian Sandor|Edited by Stephen Alpher

Updated Jan 30, 2025, 9:48 p.m. UTCPublished Jan 30, 2025, 9:47 p.m. UTC

Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin white paper on Halloween Day in 2008. (Jonathan Borba/Unsplash, modified by CoinDesk)

What to know:

Tether is launching its $140 billion USDT stablecoin on the Bitcoin and Lightning Networks, aiming to expand its role in the Bitcoin-based financial ecosystem.
The integration, enabled by Lightning Labs’ Taproot Assets protocol, allows USDT issuance on Bitcoin’s base layer and transactions on Lightning Network, offering faster and cheaper payments.
Tether’s move marks a shift for stablecoins, which have primarily thrived on smart contract platforms like Ethereum, Tron, and Solana.

San Salvador — Tether, the crypto company behind the largest stablecoin, is introducing its $140 billion USDT token to Bitcoin — the blockchain that underpins the largest and oldest cryptocurrency — and Bitcoin-based scaling service Lightning Network, the company posted on X on Thursday.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW

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Stablecoins are a $200 billion digital asset class with their prices anchored to an external asset, predominantly the U.S. dollar. They serve as a bridge between government-issued money and blockchain-based digital assets, and are increasingly popular for everyday uses like payments, savings and remittances, especially in emerging countries.

While stablecoin usage has rapidly rapidly expanded over the past years, activity and supply are mostly concentrated on smart contract platforms like Ethereum, Tron and Solana.

What makes USDT’s integration with Bitcoin possible is Taproot Assets, a piece of infrastructure that allows asset issuances on the Bitcoin base layer and transfers over the Lightning Network, a scaling platform focusing on fast and cheap transactions, thus making micropayments more cost-efficient. The protocol, developed by Lightning Labs and released last year, opens the way to bring external tokens like stablecoins to the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Krisztian Sandor is a U.S. markets reporter focusing on stablecoins, tokenization, real-world assets. He graduated from New York University’s business and economic reporting program before joining CoinDesk. He holds BTC, SOL and ETH.