What is USDT (Tether) and how do crypto payments use it
USDT (Tether) is a stablecoin designed to track the US dollar one-to-one and issued as a token on many blockchains.
USDT is a token issued by Tether that is meant to be worth one US dollar. Tether says each token is backed by reserves, and holders can redeem through the issuer under its own terms. For most people, though, USDT is simply “digital dollars” that can be sent at any hour to anyone with a wallet address.
USDT does not live on one blockchain. Tether issues separate versions on TRON (TRC-20), Ethereum (ERC-20), BNB Smart Chain (BEP-20), TON (as a jetton), Solana (as an SPL token) and other networks. They are all called USDT, but technically they are different tokens with different contracts, fees and confirmation times. Tokens sent on one network do not appear on another, so the network matters as much as the coin.
For a business, USDT removes the main problem of accepting crypto: price volatility. A customer pays 100 USDT, and the merchant receives the equivalent of 100 dollars, not an amount that may lose 5% by evening. That is why USDT is the most common payment coin for online stores, SaaS, hosting and freelance work across the CIS and beyond.
Developers should note that the contract’s decimals differ by network: USDT on TRON and Ethereum uses 6 decimal places, while the BSC version uses 18. Mixing these up when converting amounts produces errors by a factor of a trillion. Another classic mistake is checking only the token symbol: anyone can deploy a token called “USDT”, so a payment must be matched against the official contract for that network.
Moonvex accepts USDT on TRON, Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Solana and TON. The customer sees the network, the exact amount and the address, and a payment is credited only after two independent node providers confirm it.
Before accepting USDT, check
- which network the customer is paying on and that your address belongs to that network
- that incoming tokens come from the official USDT contract, not a lookalike
- the decimals of the contract when converting raw amounts
- who pays the network fee and in which coin (TRX, ETH, BNB, SOL or TON)