What Is USDT (Tether)? How It Works and Where to Buy

What is USDT?

USDT, issued by Tether, is a fiat-backed stablecoin designed to trade at approximately $1.00. Each token is intended to be backed by reserves consisting mostly of cash, short-term US Treasury bills and cash equivalents.

Which networks does USDT run on?

USDT is issued natively on several blockchains, most notably Tron (TRC-20), Ethereum (ERC-20), Solana, BNB Chain, Avalanche and Layer 2 rollups. The same token can have very different transfer fees depending on the network — always pick the network your receiving exchange actually supports, or the funds can be lost.

What is USDT used for?

• Quote currency — the majority of crypto pairs are priced in USDT rather than USD.
• Risk-off parking — traders rotate into USDT to sit in dollars without leaving the crypto system.
• Moving money between exchanges — fast and cheap, which is exactly what arbitrage strategies depend on.
• Payments and remittances — widely used for cross-border transfers, especially in emerging markets.
• DeFi collateral and yield — lending markets pay interest on USDT deposits.

Where can you buy USDT?

• Centralised exchanges — Binance, OKX, Bybit, Kraken and most regional platforms sell USDT directly for fiat.
• P2P marketplaces — very common in countries where bank-to-exchange transfers are restricted.
• Decentralised exchanges — swap ETH, SOL or BNB for USDT from a self-custody wallet.

Risks you should understand

• Issuer and reserve risk — you are trusting Tether's attestations, not a government guarantee.
• Depeg risk — USDT has briefly traded below $1 during periods of market stress.
• Regulatory risk — stablecoin rules are still being written in the EU, US and Asia.
• Wrong-network transfers — the single most common way beginners lose funds.

USDT pairs are the backbone of the price data on NexPrices — you can see live quotes on the crypto page.