Fiat-backed stablecoins have become one of the most widely used assets in the world. As they power everything from onchain lending markets to cross-border transfers, stablecoins are defining DeFi, traditional finance—and everything in between. But as the number of blockchains multiplies, so does the confusion: one stablecoin, a dozen chains, and countless wrapped, bridged, or reissued versions.

The stablecoin wars of the past focused on trust models and peg mechanics. But with major stablecoins like Tether’s USDT proving reliable after a decade of market battle-testing, the focus has now shifted towards optimizing deployment.

How do you take a stable asset like USDT and make it work natively across chains without adding risk, fragmentation, or complexity? To answer that, we need to examine how stablecoins are currently deployed: as native tokens, as bridged or wrapped assets, and, more recently, as omnichain liquidity standards like USDT0.

What Are Native Stablecoins?

Native stablecoins are tokens issued directly by the stablecoin issuer on a given chain.

In this model, the stablecoin contract is deployed and maintained by the issuer itself (such as Tether for USDT) on a specific blockchain. All minting and burning operations happen under the issuer’s control, often governed by an offchain system that reflects fiat deposits and redemptions. The classic example of this is USDT’s native deployment on Ethereum. Tether operates the smart contract on Ethereum and mints/burns tokens in response to deposits and withdrawals of U.S. dollars held in reserve.

Key characteristics of most native stablecoins include:

• Canonical Token Contract: The issuer controls the master token contract on that chain.

• Mint/Burn Directly Linked to Offchain Reserves: Fiat flows correspond 1:1 to token supply changes.

• No Inter-chain Awareness: Tokens minted on one chain have no native interoperability with deployments on other chains.

While native deployments offer strong assurances and minimal trust assumptions, they come with limitations. Each blockchain requires a separate deployment and maintenance effort from the issuer, which is often a manual and time-consuming process. This leads to uneven access across ecosystems, as issuers may prioritize certain chains over others.

Most critically, liquidity becomes siloed: USDT issued natively on Ethereum cannot be used on Solana or BNB Chain without a bridge or wrapper, fragmenting stablecoin markets and creating inefficiencies for users and protocols alike.

What Are Bridged Stablecoins?

Bridged stablecoins are synthetic representations of a token, issued via a bridge protocol when users transfer assets across chains. A bridge typically locks the native token on the source chain and mints an equivalent representation on the destination chain. The user receives the bridged version, but must trust the bridge’s ability to safely redeem it later. For example, when USDT is sent from Ethereum to Avalanche via a bridge, the bridge may lock the original USDT in a smart contract on Ethereum and mint USDT.e on Avalanche.

Key characteristics include:

• Custodial or Contract-Based Locking: Assets are locked by a smart contract (or in some cases, by a multisig) on the source chain.

• Mint/Burn on Destination Chain: A new synthetic version is issued and burned based on lock/release events.

• Message Passing: Bridges use messaging layers to relay state changes and mint/burn events between chains.

Bridged stablecoins offer a quick way to bring assets cross-chain, but they introduce major security and fragmentation risks. Each bridged stablecoin version acts as a separate asset, fragmenting liquidity complicating things for developers and users alike. On top of that, past bridge hacks have resulted in billions in losses, and redemptions can be delayed or frozen altogether during periods of high volatility even in the absence of bad actors.

What Are Wrapped Stablecoins?

Wrapped stablecoins are third-party representations of a stablecoin, usually designed to be backed 1:1 by the original asset held in reserve. The term "wrapped" refers to any asset that is represented on a chain it does not natively exist on, often via custodial or smart contract-based mechanisms.  For example, a protocol might accept deposits of USDT from users and issue a new “wUSDT” token on another chain.

Key characteristics include:

• Custodial Minting: A third party holds the original token and mints the wrapped version.

• Varying Trust Models: Some use multisigs, others rely on custodial APIs, and a few use DAO governance.

• Limited or No Redemption Rights: Users often can’t directly redeem for the underlying asset unless the protocol provides that mechanism.

Wrapped stablecoins come with significant tradeoffs in trust, usability, and integration. Since these tokens are issued by third parties, users are reliant on the integrity and solvency of the custodian or protocol managing the underlying assets. Many dApps do not accept wrapped tokens, and the proliferation of multiple wrapped versions for the same stablecoin further complicates this issue.

Enter USDT0: The Native, Omnichain Stablecoin Standard

USDT0 is not a wrapped token, not bridged, and not reissued separately on every chain. It’s an omnichain-native deployment of USDT built on LayerZero’s OFT (Omnichain Fungible Token) standard that unifies liquidity across chains using a single canonical reserve on Ethereum.

This reserve is never burned or bridged. Instead, when users move USDT0 across chains, the token is burned on the source chain and minted on the destination, using secure LayerZero messaging and atomic mint/burn logic. At no point is the underlying USDT locked on Ethereum touched, and this supply serves as the sole source of truth for all USDT0 in circulation.

Key advantages of this approach include:

• Canonical Supply: All USDT0 tokens across all chains are backed by an untouchable supply of USDT held on Ethereum.

• Omnichain Liquidity with Native Composability: All USDT0 is fully accessible and composable across chains, without the need for multiple token standards.

• Immutable Messaging + DVN Security: Each cross-chain transfer is verified through LayerZero endpoints and a dual-DVN security model to ensure every mint or burn operation is valid and fully collateralized.

In practice, this means users can interact with a single, unified asset that retains its integrity no matter where it goes, rather than dealing with multiple versions of USDT on different networks. With USDT0, there is no more second-guessing which version is "real" since every USDT0 token is fully backed, fully verifiable, and always redeemable.  The result is a stablecoin experience that’s far simpler and scalable, with fewer unnecessary trust assumptions.

One Version of USDT, Available Everywhere

In a world with dozens of active blockchains and thousands of applications and protocols, the focus has shifted from just minting stablecoins to how to deploy them in a way that scales. While many stablecoins look similar on the surface or may be associated with the same underlying asset, the method of deployment significantly impacts their security, trust assumptions, interoperability, and composability.

Bridged and wrapped stablecoin models have helped stablecoins expand, but they’ve also introduced complexity, fragmentation, and risk. USDT0 offers a better way to make native stablecoins truly onmichain via a unified, deep liquidity pool. Whether you’re a builder or a trader, it’s time to stop dealing with multiple versions of USDT, and start using one that works everywhere.

Visit usdt0.to to take your USDT, anywhere.