- Tether has unveiled its native, self-custodial crypto wallet, with initial support on USDT, USAT, XAUT, and BTC.
- The new digital wallet enables sending funds using human-readable identifiers.
Around 12 years after its launch, Tether has become the world’s largest stablecoin issuer. However, despite its vision of bridging financial inclusion to billions of people, holders of its assets remain reliant on third-party cryptocurrency wallets for custody.
Launch of Tether.Wallet
In an effort to bring greater freedom and flexibility to stablecoin users, the company has launched its native, self-custodial digital wallet. Tether.wallet, a solution built on top of the open-source WDK (Wallet Development Kit), brings control directly into the hands of digital asset holders.
Tether stated that the digital wallet’s launch complements its mission to build open financial systems for everyday use. Additionally, it aims to eliminate the pain points typically associated with managing crypto assets.
Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, called the new product “the People’s Wallet” because it operates without intermediaries, and users don’t have to entrust their digital assets to third parties.
Moreover, Ardoino believes that removing the complexity of digital asset management, which has typically constrained their broader utility, holds the key to expanding crypto and stablecoin adoption beyond Tether’s current 570 million users.
The Tether CEO highlighted that transferring value is as simple as sending a message using the new wallet.
How It Works
Users have absolute control of their assets on tether.wallet. However, like other self-custodial wallets, it also means owners are solely responsible for their private keys and recovery phrases. Hence, forgetting or losing them would likewise mean losing access to all assets within the associated wallet.
What stands out in tether.wallet is that users can send funds with it using simple, human-readable identifiers instead of the usual long strings of alphanumeric characters, helping mitigate mistakes during transactions. What’s more, the network collects fees directly from the wallet’s balance, rather than requiring the user to manage a separate network or gas tokens for fees.
Supported Assets
Tether.wallet has very limited crypto and stablecoin compatibility at launch. Its issuer claimed it has initially streamlined the product’s support to the “digital assets that truly matter for most people.”
First and foremost, it supports Tether USDT, the institution’s flagship stablecoin and the largest stablecoin in the world, with a market cap of more than $186 billion. It includes forms of the token on Ethereum (ETH), Polygon (POL), Plasma (XPL), and Arbitrum (ARB).
Second is Tether America USD (USAT), a US-compliant version of USDT, with an overall market valuation of over $49 million. The wallet supports the version of the stablecoin on the Ethereum network.
Third is Tether Gold (XAUT), one of the world’s earliest tokenized gold, with a $2.72 billion market cap. Only forms of the asset minted on Ethereum, Polygon, Plasma, and Arbitrum are supported.
Last but not least is Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s largest crypto asset, with a market capitalization of around $1.5 trillion. Its coverage includes the BTC available on the Lightning Network.
