Tether (USDT) Stablecoin Is Coming to the Bitcoin (BTC) Lightning Network

Tether’s CEO, Paolo Ardoino, has insisted that USDT on Bitcoin Lightning remains the best amid plans to integrate the stablecoin

A recent interview with Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, has shed light on the upcoming integration of the company’s flagship stablecoin, USDT, with the Bitcoin Lightning network.

The integration, which has been in the works for some time, will see the return of USDT to its original roots after beginning its journey as an Omni-layer token on the Bitcoin blockchain.

However, due to low demand, Tether decided to cease issuing new USDT on Omni and instead focus on issuing on Ethereum, the chain with the greatest demand.

Now, with the increasing popularity of Bitcoin and its second-layer scaling solution, Lightning Network, the stablecoin issuer is returning to the network.

Announcing the partnership, Ardoino said:

“We started out on the Bitcoin chain. We built the protocol as an Omni-layer on the Bitcoin chain. When we started, there was no Ethereum chain, no Ethereum L2s, there was nothing.

We had to build a token that was recognized by all the exchanges. Back then, the exchanges were mainly focused on Bitcoin. So we had to put the token on the Bitcoin chain.”

Earlier this year, Lightning Lab announced a partnership with Tether to integrate USDT on the blockchain. The partnership was announced during the Bitcoin Plan B conference in Plan B in Lugano, Switzerland.

The integration will allow for the creation of Taproot Assets, also known as fungible tokens, using the Bitcoin blockchain. Announcing the partnership, Lightning Lab CEO, Labrys Berenson, said:

“We are excited to be working with Tether to bring USDT to the Bitcoin Lightning Network. This partnership will allow us to create new and innovative financial products that will benefit everyone.”

Earlier this year, Ardoino also touched on the strength of Bitcoin’s second-layer scaling solution, Lightning Network, for large-scale transactions. In an interview with BlockTV, the CEO noted that single-share state and limited network validators are major setbacks of other L2s compared with Lightning.

Some layer 2 networks, especially on Ethereum, have few or no validators on the chain, making transactions difficult. However, the peer-to-peer Bitcoin network uses nodes to process transactions, making them readily available.

Ardoino added that since the network leverages payment channels to make on-chain and off-chain transactions, users of an existing channel can maintain anonymity, unlike Ethereum L2’s single-share state, where every validator has access to all individual data on the blockchain.