Blockstream brings Tether (USDt) to Liquid Network blockchain

Blockstream, the bitcoin, and blockchain development company, today announced it has integrated Tether on its Liquid Network.

The Blockstream Liquid Network is a blockchain for exchanges, brokers, and market makers that enables fast, private bitcoin transactions with other members of the network. Through Liquid’s asset issuance feature, members can tokenize fiat currencies, securities, or even other cryptocurrencies.

The Liquid sidechain represents an upgrade over Tether’s original platform, the Omni Layer, offering faster settlements, confidential transactions, and multisig security. In addition to the launch, Liquid USDt is now available for deposit and withdrawal at Bitfinex, with more venues opening soon, including BTSE, BTCTrader/BtcTurk, OKEx, OKCoin, RenrenBit, and Sideshift AI.

Liquid USDt can be easily added to existing Liquid Bitcoin (L-BTC) integrations, with more support for Tether on Liquid expected later in the year.

Atomic Swaps for Enhanced OTC

Another benefit of Liquid USDt is that OTC desks and individual traders can complete near-instant BTC-USD swaps without relying on mutual trust or third parties such as an escrow service. Using Liquid in this way will significantly expand the number of potential counterparties available to OTC bitcoin traders, as they will no longer have to worry about the risks of non-delivery.

Further, with Tether on Liquid, it presents a number of new possibilities that will become actualized over the coming months:

• “Completing the loop”: Once USDt is opened for deposits on more exchanges, arbitrage traders will be able to take advantage of Liquid’s 1-minute block times to rapidly complete inter-exchange transfers of fiat.
• Enhanced securities trading: With the launch of the Liquid Securities platform on the horizon, USDt will provide a more familiar asset for traditional traders to trade their securities against.
• Instant, low-cost stablecoin payments: Following the launch of Lightning support for L-BTC, Lightning support for other Liquid assets, such as USDt, is coming soon as well, making instant, low-cost stablecoin payments possible.