Tether launched a self-custodial wallet called tether.wallet on Tuesday, giving consumers direct access to Bitcoin (BTC) and stablecoin payments while raising questions about centralization trade-offs.

Tether Wallet Features

The wallet supports USDT (USDT), XAUT (XAUT), USAT, and Bitcoin.

Users can send funds through human-readable @tether.me usernames instead of long wallet addresses, with fees paid in the asset being transferred rather than separate gas tokens.

Tether said all transactions are signed locally on the user's device.

However, the wallet also lets users back up private keys to the cloud, a feature that has drawn criticism with similar products in the past, including Ledger's controversial recovery tool.

Yellow Media will track early user reactions to assess whether the cloud backup and centralization concerns develop into broader pushback.

At launch, USDT and XAUT are available on Ethereum (ETH), Polygon, Plasma, and Arbitrum, while USAT works only on Ethereum. Bitcoin is supported on-chain and via the Lightning Network.

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Ardoino's "People's Wallet"

CEO Paolo Ardoino called the product "the People's Wallet," saying it reflects Tether's shift from building infrastructure to putting it directly in users' hands. "The next step is making that digital infrastructure more accessible and usable for end users," Ardoino said, noting Tether's technology already reaches more than 570 million people.

The wallet builds on the company's open-source Wallet Development Kit, released in late 2024.

Tether's Consumer Ambitions

The launch represents Tether's most direct move into consumer-facing distribution. Until now, the company operated primarily as background infrastructure, enabling liquidity and settlement across more than 160 countries. Earlier this year, reports surfaced that Tether was exploring a fundraising round at a $500 billion valuation, though it remained unclear whether the effort would proceed.

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