Tether, the company that created and issues the popular stablecoin, announced the integration of USDT into the Bitcoin ecosystem, both on its base layer and on the Lightning Network, the BTC micropayment network. The announcement was made today, January 30, by Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, and Elizabeth Stark, CEO of Lightning Labs.
The stablecoin will be coming to the Bitcoin network powered by Lightning Labs, the network's developers, and Taproop Assets, a protocol that allows assets to be issued in Bitcoin and transferred over the Lightning Network for instant, high-volume transactions.
Once fully integrated, USDt will seamlessly run on Bitcoin’s base layer and its layer 2 Lightning Network. This will enable high-speed, low-fee transactions, while combining Bitcoin’s robust security and scalability. With USDt, the world’s largest stablecoin, serving over 350 million users, developers and users will enjoy the unparalleled reliability of Bitcoin along with the efficiency and versatility of Lightning-enabled payments.
Tether, the USDT issuing company.
Elizabeth Stark, CEO of Lightning Labs, also had a few words related to the event announced by Tether in its news section. “Today marks a new era for stablecoins. Bringing USDT to Bitcoin combines the security and decentralization of Bitcoin with the speed and scalability of Lightning. Millions of people will now be able to use the most open and secure blockchain to send dollars globally. It all comes down to Bitcoin,” the director commented.
According to the official Lightning Network docs , “Taproot Assets rely on Taproot, the Bitcoin upgrade, for a new tree structure that allows developers to embed arbitrary asset metadata within an existing output. It uses Schnorr signatures to improve simplicity and scalability, and importantly, works with multi-hop transactions over Lightning .”
In the past, specifically on August 7, 2024, USDT came to lightning through Speed, after Paolo Ardoino promised the inclusion of the currency in the second layer of bitcoin.
However, the supported token at the time was a “wrapped” version of USDT on Lightning. Synonym managed to send tether (USDT) through Lightning, Bitcoin's second-layer network. Specifically, 5 transactions with USDT that were confirmed from block 728,550. In neither case was it an official technological solution implemented by Tether.
Now, USDT is officially coming to Bitcoin and the Lightning Network, thanks to the people behind Tether and the Bitcoin Layer 2. The announcement does not state when the upgrade will arrive, only saying that it will be available soon.
