Tether launches tether.wallet to extend self-custodial finance to billions

Tether has officially launched tether.wallet, a self-custodial digital wallet designed to bring its financial infrastructure to everyday users. The wallet supports USD₮, USA₮, XAU₮, and Bitcoin across multiple blockchain networks, and enables transfers using human-readable usernames such as name@tether.me. As of March 2026, more than 570 million wallets are already running on Tether’s technology, and the company says the launch extends its decade-long mission toward financial inclusion.

Wallet features designed to reduce technical friction

Tether built tether.wallet to simplify access to digital assets by removing common technical barriers. The wallet is designed to eliminate the need for users to manage long wallet addresses or hold separate gas tokens.

According to Tether, users pay transaction fees directly in the asset they are transferring, a design intended to reduce friction in blockchain transactions. The wallet also operates on a fully self-custodial model: transactions are signed locally on the user’s device before reaching the network.

Tether states that private keys and recovery phrases remain exclusively under the user’s control. At launch, tether.wallet supports USD₮ on Ethereum, Polygon, Plasma, and Arbitrum. XAU₮ is available on the same networks, while USA₮ runs on Ethereum.

For Bitcoin, Tether says support covers both on-chain transactions and the Lightning Network, with additional networks expected to be added after the initial release. The application is also designed to automatically surface available networks and balances, keeping the underlying infrastructure largely invisible to end users. Tether describes the goal as making sending value as simple as sending a message, and says more chains will follow in subsequent updates.

Targeting users left out of traditional finance

In remarks on the launch, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said, “Tether has achieved, without any doubts, the widest financial inclusion success story in the history of humanity.” He added that the next step is making Tether’s digital infrastructure more accessible and usable by end users, focusing on removing complexity while preserving the value of digital asset technology.

Ardoino described tether.wallet as a natural evolution of Tether’s role in the digital economy and referenced a long-term vision in which “tens of billions of humans, machines, and trillions of AI agents will transact seamlessly at the speed of light.”

Tether also pointed to the scale of financial exclusion, stating that nearly half of the global population lacks access to basic financial services. The company says its technology reaches over 160 countries, with tens of millions of new wallets added each quarter, and that tether.wallet extends this reach directly to end users.

Built on Tether’s Wallet Development Kit

Tether says tether.wallet is built on its open-source Wallet Development Kit (WDK). The WDK is positioned to allow developers, businesses, and AI agents to build self-custodial wallets, serving as a foundational layer for future digital asset applications. Tether states that any entity can use the WDK to integrate Tether’s infrastructure into its own systems.