What is USDT0? Tether's bridged token as gas

2026-09-14

USDT0 is Tether's USDT in omnichain form: one supply, issued on Ethereum and carried to other chains by LayerZero's Omnichain Fungible Token (OFT) standard instead of being reissued on each one. On Stable it is also the gas token, so every fee on chain id 988 is denominated in USDT0 and there is no second asset to keep topped up. Below: what USDT0 is, how it reaches Stable, why its 18-decimal native balance and its 6-decimal ERC-20 balance are one balance, and how to get some. Every on-chain figure here was measured on 14 September 2026.

USDT0 on Stable at a glance

Fact	Value (verified 14 September 2026)
Source of truth	Ethereum mainnet: USDT locked in the OFT Adapter `0x6C96dE32CEa08842dcc4058c14d3aaAD7Fa41dee`
On Stable	ERC-20 at `0x779Ded0c9e1022225f8E0630b35a9b54bE713736`, and the native gas asset over that same balance
LayerZero endpoint id	30396
Decimals	18 as the native gas token, 6 as the ERC-20 – one balance, two views
Chain id	988
RPC	`https://rpc.stable.xyz` (WebSocket `wss://rpc.stable.xyz`); public endpoints are limited to 1,000 requests per 10 seconds per IP
Explorer	stablescan.xyz
Networks	23 in the USDT0 deployments table, 14 September 2026
Bridge interface	usdt0.to

What USDT0 is, and what it is not

USDT0's documentation describes a lock-and-mint design on the OFT standard with a single source of truth on Ethereum: USDT is locked in an OFT Adapter contract on Ethereum mainnet and an equal amount of USDT0 is minted on the destination chain, backed 1:1 by what is locked. Send USDT0 back and the mint is reversed.

So USDT0 is neither a new dollar nor a synthetic with its own peg: it is a transport format for USDT that already exists. usdt0.to is operated by Everdawn Labs Limited under British Virgin Islands law; Tether issues the underlying USDT. On 14 September 2026 the deployments table listed 23 networks, Stable among them.

How USDT0 reaches Stable

The OFT mesh. If you already hold USDT0 on Arbitrum, Ethereum, Optimism, Polygon, Unichain, Ink, Sei, Mantle, Hyperliquid, Plasma, Monad, MegaETH, Flare, Hedera, Rootstock, Bera, Conflux, Morph, Tempo or X Layer, the transfer burns it on the source chain and mints it on Stable, with no protocol fee: you pay network gas on both chains.

The legacy mesh. Dollars held as native USDT on Tron or TON take another path: the USDT is locked, routed through an Arbitrum hub, and USDT0 is minted on Stable. That route charges 0.03% plus source-chain gas – the one percentage fee in the flow, and the reason "bridging is free" is not accurate without the caveat. Holders on Ethereum and Arbitrum can use either mesh.

Who has to sign. Stable's bridges run a 3-of-3 required DVN configuration with three independent verifiers – LayerZero Labs, Canary and Horizen – and all three must sign before the destination contract executes a message. The documented failure mode is a pause, not a loss: flow can stop when a partner protocol pauses its own bridge, while funds already on Stable keep moving.

Gas in USDT0: one balance, two decimal views

This is the part that breaks integrations, and it is now written down: Stable's documentation states that USDT0 uses 18 decimals as the native gas token and 6 as an ERC-20, both over the same underlying balance. On 14 September 2026 one address on chain id 988 reported a native balance of 10132486237400000000 wei and an ERC-20 balanceOf of 10132486: the ratio is exactly 1e12, and the 6-decimal view is the floor of the 18-decimal one, the remainder below 1e12 wei being dust the ERC-20 cannot express. The docs put the maximum divergence at 0.000001 USDT0.

Libraries report 18 decimals. viem and ethers.js read the native gas token; decimals() on the ERC-20 returns 6. Neither is wrong, and neither is a second token.
There is nothing to wrap. USDT0 is not a WETH-style wrapper: there is no deposit or withdraw, and probing those functions on 14 September 2026 reverted. Wrapping is not unnecessary here, it is unavailable.
Contracts must not mirror balances. An ERC-20 transferFrom or permit can reduce a contract's native balance without any of its code running, so the docs tell integrators to check address(this).balance immediately before a transfer.

Fees follow an EIP-1559-style model with a dynamically adjusting base fee, denominated in USDT0. Measured on 14 September 2026, the gas price on chain id 988 was 1.125 gwei of 18-decimal USDT0, putting a 21,000-gas transfer at 0.000023625 USDT0. The base fee floats: a dated measurement, not a price list.

Why older guides mention gUSDT

Stable has not always paid gas in USDT0: the v1.2.0 upgrade made USDT0 the native gas token in place of gUSDT and converted existing balances automatically. Stable's published documentation, read on 14 September 2026, records that change without dating its arrival on mainnet, so no date is stated here. Guides describing a wrapped gas asset on this chain predate the upgrade.

How to get USDT0 on Stable

Stable is a Layer 1, not a rollup, so there is no canonical Ethereum-to-Stable bridge of the Arbitrum kind. USDT0 arrives over the meshes above; the official interface is usdt0.to.

Add the network. Chain id 988, RPC https://rpc.stable.xyz (WebSocket wss://rpc.stable.xyz), symbol USDT0 with 18 decimals, explorer stablescan.xyz.
Move the dollars. Open usdt0.to, connect the wallet holding your USDT or USDT0, pick the source chain and Stable as destination, and send. Budget source-chain gas: no protocol fee on the OFT mesh, 0.03% on the Tron and TON route.
Check the balance. Once the mint lands, look the address up on stablescan.xyz. Arriving USDT0 is immediately spendable as gas: no wrapping, no swap, no second asset first.

Stable also runs a public testnet: chain id 2201, RPC https://rpc.testnet.stable.xyz, explorer testnet.stablescan.xyz, faucet faucet.stable.xyz.

USDT0 is not the STABLE token

USDT0 is the dollar you spend and the gas you pay. STABLE is the network's governance token: delegated proof of stake, protocol upgrades, and a share of the USDT0 gas revenue validators distribute. Paying gas never requires STABLE.

Launch a token on Stable with openfair

Because the gas asset and the pool's quote asset are the same dollar, a launch on Stable needs one asset and one wallet. On openfair a fair launch trades on a bonding curve that collects 10000 USDT0 from buyers; when it fills, the token lists on Uniswap V3 and the liquidity position goes to an immutable contract with no withdraw function. Instant listing skips the curve and lists straight away with token-only liquidity.

The one mandatory cost is the 0.5 USDT0 creation fee plus gas: a real fee charged by the factory contract, not a promotion. Trading fees are yours to set, from 0% to 10%. Graduated tokens trade through swap.stable.xyz; the curve and the locked position are spelled out in the documentation.

FAQ

Is USDT0 the same thing as USDT?

It is the same dollar in transportable form: each USDT0 corresponds to USDT locked in the OFT Adapter on Ethereum, backed 1:1. What differs is the rail, not the peg.

Why does my wallet show 18 decimals when the ERC-20 says 6?

Because both are true: on Stable the native gas token uses 18 decimals and the ERC-20 interface 6, over one shared balance. The readings can differ by up to 0.000001 USDT0 – dust below the 6-decimal floor.

Does bridging USDT0 cost anything?

On the OFT mesh there is no protocol fee, so the cost is network gas on both chains. From Tron or TON the legacy route charges 0.03% plus source-chain gas. On Stable itself a 21,000-gas transfer measured 0.000023625 USDT0 on 14 September 2026.

Do I need any other token to use Stable?

No. USDT0 pays for gas and there is no separate gas asset to manage. The network supports sponsored gas through governance-registered waiver addresses bound to specific contracts and method selectors, but that opt-in service does not cover an openfair launch: creating a token costs gas plus the 0.5 USDT0 fee.