Tether Is Bringing Its $140 Billion Stablecoin to Bitcoin

Stablecoins are a $200 billion digital asset class with their prices anchored to an external asset, predominantly the U.S. dollar.

Cryptocurrency stablecoin company Tether is bringing its USDT token to the Bitcoin and Lightning Network blockchains, according to a company post on Thursday.

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

Despite the rapid growth in stablecoin usage over the past few years, activity and supply are largely concentrated on smart contract platforms such as Ethereum, Tron and Solana.

However, what makes USDT's integration with Bitcoin possible is Taproot Assets, a piece of infrastructure that enables asset issuances on the Bitcoin base layer and transfers over the Lightning Network, a scaling platform designed for fast and low-cost transactions, making micropayments more cost-efficient. The protocol, developed by Lightning Labs and released last year, paves the way for bringing external tokens like stablecoins into the Bitcoin ecosystem.