Tether tokens are digital tokens built on multiple leading blockchains, including Algorand, Celo, Cosmos, Ethereum, EOS, Liquid Network, Solana, Tezos, Ton, and Tron. These transfer protocols consist of open source software that interacts with the blockchain to enable the issuance and redemption of Tether tokens. For a full list of supported blockchains and protocols, see our "Supported Protocols" page.
Each Tether token is 100% backed by reserves, which include traditional currency, cash equivalents, and other assets, including receivables from loans made by Tether to third parties.
The Tether platform is fully reserved when the sum of all Tether tokens in circulation is less than or equal to the value of our reserves. Anyone can view information about these two numbers at any time through our "Transparency" page. For more information, see "How often does Tether provide transparency information?"
Tether was originally created to leverage the Bitcoin network as its transport protocol (specifically, the Omni Layer) to support transactions of tokenized traditional currencies. Tether on the Ethereum blockchain, as an ERC20 token, is a newer transport layer, which allows Tether tokens to now be used in Ethereum smart contracts or decentralized applications on Ethereum. As a standard ERC20 token, it can also be sent to any Ethereum address.
Because Tether tokens are currently available using different transport protocols, when users send Tether tokens to other addresses, they need to double-check the destination address to confirm that they have selected the correct transport protocol.
