Tether is stepping further into blockchain infrastructure with a new strategic investment in LayerZero Labs, the company behind one of the crypto industry’s leading interoperability protocols.
The deal was announced on February 10. While the exact financial details were not shared, the message is clear: Tether wants to strengthen the foundation that allows digital assets to move smoothly across different blockchains.
LayerZero builds technology that lets data and tokens move between blockchains without relying on centralized middlemen. In simple terms, it helps different blockchain networks “talk” to each other safely and efficiently.
At the center of this partnership is support for USDt0, Tether’s omnichain version of USDT, and XAUt0, its gold-backed digital asset. Both are built using LayerZero’s Omnichain Fungible Token standard. This system is designed to prevent the common problem of fragmentation, where liquidity gets split across multiple chains and becomes harder to manage.
Instead of creating separate versions of a token on every network, the framework allows assets to move across chains while keeping liquidity unified. That makes trading, transfers, and settlements smoother and more efficient.
According to Tether, USDt0 has already processed more than $70 billion in cross-chain transfers in less than a year. That level of activity shows that large-scale interoperability can work under real market conditions, not just in theory.
Tether said this real-world performance was a key reason behind the investment. The company believes interoperability is critical if stablecoins are going to play a bigger role in global payments and settlements. When assets can move easily between networks, markets become less fragmented and more efficient.
The partnership also goes beyond simple token transfers. Tether plans to integrate LayerZero’s technology into its Wallet Development Kit. This toolkit helps developers build applications for payments, custody, and settlements. By embedding cross-chain infrastructure directly into these tools, Tether hopes to make it easier for developers to create real-world financial products.
Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s CEO, said the company focuses on investing in platforms that already prove their value in live environments. He described LayerZero’s technology as a foundational layer that allows digital assets to move in real time across networks.
The move also ties into Tether’s growing interest in what it calls “agentic finance.” This refers to a future where artificial intelligence systems manage wallets and execute transactions on their own. As automated payments and micropayments become more common, strong cross-chain infrastructure will be essential to keep everything running smoothly.
LayerZero CEO Bryan Pellegrino said the success of USDt0 helped confirm that the company’s approach works at scale. He added that closer collaboration with Tether will help push forward more open and permissionless financial systems.
Overall, the investment shows that Tether is not just focused on issuing stablecoins. It is also putting money into the underlying infrastructure that allows those stablecoins — and other tokenized assets — to move freely across the expanding blockchain ecosystem.
