Polygon, a layer-2 (L2) scaling solution for Ethereum, is about to upgrade to the USDT0 standard, the unified liquidity network that introduced the omnichain versions of Tether’s USDT and XAUT.
USDT0 (USDT0) and XAUt0 (XAUt0), cross-chain liquidity stablecoins enabled by LayerZero's Omnichain Fungible Token (OFT), are launching on the Polygon blockchain, USDT0 operator Everdawn Labs announced to Cointelegraph on Wednesday.
The integration marks a milestone for XAUt0, with Polygon becoming its third blockchain integration following XAUt0’s debut on TON and Hyperliquid’s HyperEVM.
For USDT0, Polygon becomes the 11th supported blockchain, reflecting the stablecoin’s design to provide the “interoperability backbone” for Tether USDt (USDT), USDT0 co-founder Lorenzo R told Cointelegraph.
What are USDT0 and XAUT0?
Unlike the underlying Tether-operated stablecoins — dollar-pegged USDT and gold-backed XAUT (XAUT) — USDT0 and XAUT0 are not directly backed by assets like cash or gold. Instead, they are minted by depositing USDT or XAUT into a specific contract on Ethereum.
“USDT0 works on top of the core Tether infrastructure, and it gives users and chains the ability to access their USDT tokens, on the networks they want,” Lorenzo R told Cointelegraph in May.
USDT0, the omnichain version of USDT, went live in January 2025, over a decade after the Tether USDT stablecoin debuted as Realcoin in October 2014.
XAUT0 followed soon after, with USDT0 announcing its first deployment on the TON blockchain in early June 2025.
Why Polygon?
USDT0 has expanded rapidly since its January launch, with market capitalization climbing to nearly $1.6 billion in two months. By contrast, XAUT0 has gained traction more slowly, reaching just $2.5 million in market cap, according to CoinGecko data.
USDT0 chose to scale its ecosystem on Polygon because the network has grown into “one of the strongest ecosystems” for stablecoin payments, decentralized finance (DeFi) and enterprise adoption, Lorenzo R told Cointelegraph.
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“With over $1 billion in USDT liquidity and more than 6 million wallets, Polygon provides the scale and community needed to make USDT0 the de facto transfer standard,” he said.
“Note that PoS USDT [the current USDT on Polygon] will become USDT0, the contract address will not change but the token will become part of the USDT0 network,” Lorenzo R added, referring to a Polygon contract address with 1.3 billion tokens.
Additionally, Polygon’s infrastructure upgrades such as AggLayer and Bhilai Hardfork make the network an “ideal home for omnichain liquidity,” Lorenzo R noted.
“By launching both USDT0 and XAUt0 on Polygon, we’re unlocking seamless stablecoin rails and introducing native gold-backed liquidity into one of the most widely used blockchains — a perfect match for DeFi, payments and institutional-grade RWA [real-world asset] adoption,” he said.
According to Lorenzo R, the Polygon integration marks the second upgrade exceeding $1 billion for USDT0, following the Arbitrum one.
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USDT0 and XAUt0 supply locked on Ethereum is corresponding to the overall issued amount of the omnichain tokens across networks since Ethereum is their “LockBox” chain, or the chain from which USDT and XAUt enter the USDT0 ecosystem, he added.
The news came as the stablecoin market continued to gain momentum. Tether’s USDT — the largest stablecoin by market capitalization — surpassed $167 billion in mid-August, while its gold-backed token XAUT crossed the $1 billion mark for the first time on Aug. 8.
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