Stablecoins: What is USDT0 by Tether?
Stablecoins have long been the backbone of the crypto economy, bridging digital assets with dollar stability. But one recurring problem has been liquidity fragmentation—where versions of the same stablecoin exist as wrapped tokens across multiple blockchains, making them harder to move, trade, and use.
Enter USDT0, the next evolution of Tether’s USDT: a unified, omnichain stablecoin designed to seamlessly operate across multiple blockchains without wrapping or bridging.
History
The story of USDT0 begins on January 16, 2025, when Tether, issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin, partnered with LayerZero Labs to launch a new version of USDT powered by the Omnichain Fungible Token (OFT) standard.
Instead of relying on conventional cross-chain bridges, USDT0 uses LayerZero’s decentralized messaging system to transfer stablecoins between blockchains in a lock-and-mint model: USDT is locked on Ethereum, and a matching amount of USDT0 is minted on the target chain. This ensures every token remains 1:1 backed by canonical USDT.
Later, on September 9, 2025, OKX joined the project by integrating USDT0 into its ecosystem. This made USDT0 available across X Layer (OKX’s Layer 2 chain), the OKX Wallet, and the OKX Exchange, bringing omnichain USDT to millions of users.
What Makes USDT0 Unique
USDT0 isn’t just another version of USDT—it represents a fundamental shift in how stablecoins move across blockchains. Its most important innovation is the unification of liquidity. Instead of fragmenting into wrapped versions across each chain, USDT0 exists as a single, canonical asset everywhere it’s supported. This means liquidity is deeper and more efficient, reducing friction across the crypto ecosystem.
The token achieves this through the OFT standard developed by LayerZero, which enables direct and verifiable token transfers across chains without relying on centralized bridges. Security and trust are maintained by a lock-and-mint mechanism, where every USDT0 in circulation is fully backed by USDT locked on Ethereum. By eliminating wrapping and bridging, transfers are faster, cheaper, and more secure. Altogether, these innovations make USDT0 a more efficient and transparent way to move stable value across multiple networks.
How USDT0 Is Used
USDT0 was designed to be chain-agnostic and highly composable, which makes it useful across a wide range of crypto applications. In decentralized finance, it can be supplied to lending protocols, liquidity pools, and trading pairs without the complications of wrapped tokens. For payments and settlements, USDT0 enables users to move funds seamlessly between different blockchains, giving it a natural role in cross-chain commerce and on-chain treasury management.
Through its integration with OKX, users can now deposit, withdraw, and trade USDT0 across major Layer 2 networks such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and Polygon without needing to worry about bridges or compatibility. Beyond stablecoins, the model has also inspired new use cases such as XAUt0, an omnichain version of Tether’s gold-backed token, showing that the USDT0 framework can extend to real-world assets as well.
Where USDT0 Is Used Most
The first deployment of USDT0 occurred on Ink, an Ethereum Layer 2 within Optimism’s Superchain, but adoption quickly spread. Its most significant expansion came through the OKX ecosystem, where it is now widely used on X Layer, OKX Wallet, and the OKX Exchange. From there, USDT0 has grown to support a variety of major networks including Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Unichain, and Berachain, all while maintaining a unified liquidity base.
Since its launch, USDT0 has processed over $11.3 billion in cross-chain transfers across more than 251,000 transactions, making it the most active OFT-based token in the LayerZero ecosystem. This level of activity underscores the demand for a stablecoin that works natively across chains without the limitations of wrapped versions.
USDT0 is more than just a stablecoin upgrade—it’s a blueprint for the future of cross-chain assets. By combining Tether’s liquidity, LayerZero’s omnichain technology, and OKX’s user-facing ecosystem, USDT0 solves one of the biggest problems in crypto: fragmented liquidity across blockchains.
You can buy, hold, and bridge USDT0 in the MEW Mobile app if you prefer using mobile, or by downloading the Enkrypt browser extension if you prefer using a web browser.
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