Tether said it’s bringing its namesake stablecoin to Bitcoin through the layer 2 scaling service, the Lightning Network.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino and Lightning Labs CEO Elizabeth Stark announced the partnership on stage at the Bitcoin-focused Plan B conference in San Salvador, El Salvador, on Jan. 30.
Tether said in a blog post that Lightning Labs — the firm behind the Lightning Network — built the solution by leveraging the Taproot Assets protocol, which expanded the Bitcoin network’s functionality to support tokenized assets in 2022.
Tether 
USDTUSD is the largest stablecoin with a market cap of $139.4 billion, nearly three times more than its closest rival — Circle’s USD Coin 
USDCUSD at $53.1 billion, CoinGecko data shows.
Tether processed $10 trillion worth of transactions in 2024 — closing in on payment giant Visa’s $16 trillion — and manages the token across more than ten blockchains, including Ethereum, Tron, Solana and Avalanche.
Lightning Labs’ Stark and business development director Ryan Gentry wrote in a blog post that the integration would allow merchants accepting Bitcoin 
BTCUSD over Lightning to add USDT as a payment option using the same infrastructure.
“Millions of people will now be able to use the most open, secure blockchain to send dollars globally,” Stark said.
“This integration also brings Bitcoin to the many users in emerging markets who rely on stablecoins regularly as a hedge against the devaluation of their local currencies and savings.”
Lightning Labs said the integration could support the coming “wave” of transactions between artificial intelligence agents and autonomous vehicles in addition to supporting USDT micropayments on Lightning.
Tether earlier this month relocated to El Salvador, the only country where Bitcoin is currently legal tender.
El Salvador rolled out a Bitcoin Lightning Network-supported Chivo Wallet to its residents in September 2021, although it hasn’t seen a huge degree of success.
Merchants were also mandated to accept Bitcoin as a payment method until recently, with El Salvador agreeing to make the payments voluntary as part of a $1.4 billion loan deal with the International Monetary Fund.
