What is USDT (Tether)?

The largest stablecoin — a token pegged to $1 that serves as the main quote currency and dollar substitute across crypto markets.

USDT, issued by Tether, is the largest stablecoin in the world and the workhorse of crypto trading. Each token is designed to be worth one US dollar, backed by Tether's reserves of cash and short-term US government securities. The majority of all crypto trading volume is quoted against USDT — BTC/USDT, ETH/USDT and thousands of other pairs — making it the de facto dollar of exchanges. It runs on multiple blockchains, with the TRON (TRC-20) and Ethereum (ERC-20) versions most widely used.

For Pakistani traders USDT has a second life beyond trading pairs: it is the most common bridge for moving value into and out of crypto, often through peer-to-peer markets. Two practical cautions matter. First, always match the network when sending — USDT dispatched on the wrong chain to an incompatible address can be lost permanently. Second, Tether's reserve transparency has faced years of scrutiny and regulatory penalties; it has held its peg through repeated stress, but treating any single issuer as risk-free is a mistake.