What is USDT? Tether explained: backing, networks, fees and risks (2026)

USDT is a digital dollar that moves over public blockchains. Tether, the company behind it, creates new tokens when large customers deposit dollars and destroys them when those dollars are paid back.

Bitcoin and Ether are free to rise and fall. USDT is designed to stay put. That makes it handy as a parking spot between trades, a way to get paid from abroad, and a dollar balance in countries where the local currency keeps losing value.

Here's the detail that catches people out: there is no single USDT network. The same token exists separately on Tron, Ethereum, Solana and others, and a token on one chain cannot hop to another by itself.

So every transfer, on any chain, runs the same way:

Tether says each USDT is covered by reserves worth at least as much. Its latest report shows $191.5 billion of assets against $183.5 billion owed on 30 September 2026, a cushion of about $7.95 billion.

Count the Treasury bills and the Treasury-backed repos together and about 69% of the reserves are short-term US government debt. That part is about as close to cash as an investment gets.

Attestation or audit?

For years the only check was a quarterly attestation from the accounting firm BDO: a look at the reserves on one specific day. In August 2026 something new arrived.

KPMG US gave a clean, unqualified opinion on the 2025 financial statements of Tether International, the company that issues USDT. It was the first full audit in Tether's history. The catch: the audited statements themselves have not been made public.

Yes, for short spells. USDT trades on open markets, so its price can slip under $1 when traders get nervous, and it has happened before.

What pulls it back? Big customers can hand USDT to Tether and get dollars at exactly $1. When USDT trades at 97 cents, buying it and redeeming it is a quick profit, and that buying lifts the price.

Those figures show who can redeem: not ordinary holders. Everyone else turns USDT into money through exchanges, payout services or other buyers, and each one sets its own price.

Tether lists 13 blockchains where it issues USDT itself, among them Tron, Ethereum, Solana, TON, Avalanche, Aptos, NEAR, Polkadot and Tezos. In practice, Tron and Ethereum hold about 90% of all USDT.

Official chains and bridged copies

Some busy chains carry USDT that Tether does not issue itself. BNB Chain, Arbitrum and Polygon are missing from Tether's own list: the USDT there is a pegged token created by Binance or a bridged version such as USDT0.

One rule covers all of them: the sender and the receiver must pick the same chain. USDT sent from BNB Chain will never appear on Tron, even though both are labelled USDT and both are worth a dollar.

Use the one the receiver asks for. When the choice is yours, compare the fee your wallet or exchange shows for each. From a personal wallet in late 2026, ERC-20 has often been the cheaper of the two.

Want the deeper comparison, with exchange fees and wallet support? It's in USDT TRC-20 vs ERC-20.

A USDT send costs about $2 to $4 on Tron from a wallet with no staked TRX, and anything from a few cents to $4 or more on Ethereum, depending on traffic. The fee is the same for $50 as for $50,000.

Why Tron costs dollars, not cents

Tron charges token transfers in a resource called energy. A wallet with no energy burns TRX to cover it, at 100 sun (0.0001 TRX) per unit since a fee cut in August 2025.

With TRX near $0.33 in late October 2026, that works out to roughly $2.15 to $4.30 per send. Staking TRX earns energy without burning anything, which is why people who send every day pay far less.

Why Ethereum swings

Ethereum measures work in gas. A USDT send uses about 54,000 gas, so the dollar cost depends on the gas price at that moment and on the price of ETH.

What a cashout adds

Turning USDT into money adds one more line, the payout fee. On Zilligo it is 1% to 2%, added on top of the payout and shown before you send, with no markup tucked into the rate.

Exchange withdrawal fees, staking and when ERC-20 wins are all covered in USDT network fees.

USDT usually goes missing in one of two ways: the wrong chain or the wrong address. Set the network first, compare the address, and test large amounts, and you rule out both.

SendUSDT

Network

Ethereum (ERC-20)

Recipient address

0x7a3F9c2E81b4D6e05A1f8C3b9E2d47F6a0C5e1B8

Amount

1,010.00 USDT

Network: Ethereum (ERC-20). A BNB Chain address looks exactly the same.

Send

1. Step 1Set the network before anything else

   Choose Tron (TRC-20) or Ethereum (ERC-20) first, so the chain is a decision, not a leftover default.

2. Step 2Paste, then read both ends

   Compare the first and last few characters with the address you were given. Some malware quietly swaps copied addresses.

3. Step 3Test when it's big and new

   Sending a large amount to an address for the first time? Send a little, and wait until it shows up.

4. Step 4Send the balance

   Once the test arrives, send the rest to the same address on the same network.

Already sent on the wrong chain? Contact the receiver straight away with the transaction ID. On 0x chains, coins can sometimes be recovered by whoever controls the private key. USDT sent on the wrong network explains what is and isn't possible.

USDT is still held and traded worldwide, but in Europe the places that can sell it have shrunk. The US took a different route, with a second Tether coin.

Europe: MiCA

The EU's MiCA rules say licensed crypto platforms may only offer stablecoins from an authorised issuer. Tether has not sought that authorisation for USDT, and the transition period for crypto platforms ended on 1 July 2026.

Licensed platforms have been dropping USDT for European customers since 2024, with Coinbase among the first. Revolut stopped USDT purchases on 6 July 2026 and removed it for the EEA and Switzerland on 31 August, converting leftover balances into each customer's base currency.

The rules are aimed at issuers and platforms. They don't touch coins already in a wallet you control, but they make USDT harder to buy or swap on a European exchange. One dollar stablecoin that is authorised there is Circle's USDC.

United States: the GENIUS Act

The US passed its stablecoin law, the GENIUS Act, in July 2025. Tether's answer is a separate coin: USAT, launched in January 2026 and issued by Anchorage Digital Bank under US federal rules. USDT still comes from Tether's issuer in El Salvador.

USDT works well for moving dollars, but it carries four risks a bank balance does not: the issuer, freezes, scams and custody.

Freezes are real and frequent. On 23 April 2026, Tether froze more than 344 million USDT at two addresses after information from US authorities, and it says its work with law enforcement has frozen more than $4.4 billion overall.

Most freezes follow sanctions, hacks or police requests, so an ordinary holder rarely meets one. The practical lesson: don't accept USDT from people or sources you can't vouch for.

Your own wallet or an exchange?

USDT scams follow a few patterns: fake support accounts that message you first, "investment" offers that promise a return, and malware that swaps a copied address.

A person on our team checks every Zilligo order, and orders tied to fraud, scams, stolen funds or sanctions evasion are refused. The security page explains how.

Send it to a service that pays out where you want the money. On Zilligo you choose the payout first, send USDT on TRC-20 or ERC-20, and the money goes out once the transfer confirms. The full walk-through is on the USDT cashout page.

Prefer your bank? USDT to a bank account covers SEPA and ACH, including the details each one asks for.

When you create an order, the page shows the exact USDT to send, the network and a timer for your locked rate:

Order#4QW8NZ3T6P16:05

203.00USDT on Tron (TRC-20)

Your one-time address

1. Send crypto
2. Confirming
3. Payout sent

Payout: $200.00 to your Cash App

Cash Appnow

You received $200.00Your Zilligo payout is in your Cash App balance.

One honest limit: outside Europe and the US, Zilligo has no direct local bank transfer. There, Wise, PayPal, a card, a top-up or cash pickup usually fills the gap.

Often, yes. In most countries selling, spending or swapping crypto can be taxable, and USDT counts as crypto.

Treat this as general information, not tax advice. The rules vary widely, so check your country's guidance or ask an accountant.

Because USDT stays near $1, cashing it out rarely creates much gain or loss. The bigger moment usually comes earlier: many countries treat swapping another coin into USDT as a sale of that coin.

Zilligo keeps each order record for five years. The general rules are in crypto tax when you cash out.