#XRPETFIncoming?

USDT will be integrated into Bitcoin's Lightning Network.

Lightning Labs, the company behind Bitcoin's Lightning Network, is using the Taproot Assets protocol to integrate Tether's stablecoin USDT.

Tether announced that it will bring its namesake stablecoin to Bitcoin through the layer 2 scaling service, the Lightning Network.

Tether's CEO, Paolo Ardoino, and Lightning Labs' CEO, Elizabeth Stark, announced the partnership on stage at the Plan B conference focused on Bitcoin in San Salvador, El Salvador, on January 30.

Tether stated in a blog post that Lightning Labs, the firm behind the Lightning Network, built the solution leveraging the Taproot Assets protocol, which in 2022 expanded the functionality of the Bitcoin network to support tokenized assets.

Tether is the largest stablecoin, with a market capitalization of $139.4 billion, nearly three times larger than its closest competitor, Circle's USD Coin, which has a capitalization of $53.1 billion, according to data from CoinGecko.

Tether processed transactions worth $10 trillion in 2024, approaching the $16 trillion of payment giant Visa, and manages the token on more than ten blockchains, including Ethereum, Tron, Solana, and Avalanche.

Lightning Labs' CEO, Stark, and the business development director, Ryan Gentry, wrote in a blog post that the integration would allow merchants accepting Bitcoin via Lightning to add.