Tether Launches Self-Custodial Wallet Covering USDT, USAT, XAUT, and Bitcoin

Tether has launched a self-custodial crypto wallet that lets users hold and send USDT, USAT, gold-backed XAUT, and Bitcoin across multiple blockchains. The app, called tether.wallet, is a direct, consumer-facing product from the stablecoin issuer, with users holding their own private keys and signing transactions on their own devices.

Tether.wallet Bundles Stablecoin and Bitcoin Payments in One Place

Tether rolled out the wallet on Tuesday and said it is designed to make stablecoin payments as simple as sending a message. Users can hold and transfer USDT, the newer USAT stablecoin, the gold-backed XAUT token, and Bitcoin across multiple chains inside a single interface.

The app is designed to address two common friction points in crypto payments. Users can pay transaction fees in the asset they are sending rather than needing to hold a separate gas token, and long wallet addresses are replaced with human-readable usernames in the format “[email protected].”

All assets sit in a self-custodial structure. Private keys are held on the user’s device, and transactions are signed locally rather than routed through Tether.

Tether Bypasses Exchanges With Its Own Consumer Wallet

USDT is the largest dollar-pegged stablecoin in circulation, with around $185 billion outstanding based on Tether’s reported figures. Tether said more than 570 million users already interact with its technology, mostly indirectly through exchanges and payment rails. The 570 million figure is Tether’s own claim rather than an independently verified count.

Until now, most end-user access to USDT has come through third-party exchanges, payment apps, and custodial services that integrate Tether’s stablecoins. The new wallet gives the stablecoin operator a first-party interface for users who have mostly accessed USDT through third-party services.

Tether.wallet Runs on the Same WDK Toolkit Rumble Used

The wallet builds on the company’s Wallet Development Kit (WDK), an open-source toolkit the company released for third-party developers. Rumble used the WDK earlier this year to launch its own wallet supporting creator payments and peer-to-peer transfers, and tether.wallet extends that same infrastructure into a Tether-branded app.

The WDK approach lets Tether standardize features such as asset-denominated fees and human-readable usernames across multiple front ends rather than only inside its own product.

Ardoino Positions the Wallet Around Payments Between Humans, Machines, and AI Agents

Tether chief executive Paolo Ardoino described the wallet as a continuation of the company’s stablecoin work rather than a separate business line.

“Tether.wallet is the People’s Wallet because it truly reflects the natural evolution of Tether’s role, from building the foundation of the digital asset economy to making it directly usable by anyone, ready for a future in which tens of billions of humans, machines, and trillions of AI agents will transact seamlessly at the speed of light,” Ardoino said.

The company has pointed to machine-to-machine and agent-driven payments as part of its broader positioning alongside its core stablecoin business.