Tether performs first token sending over BTC’s Lightning Network in history

A historic feat occurred on the BTC network this week. For the first time since its launch, BTC has carried out a transaction involving another token on its blockchain.

This transaction took place on the Lightning Network (LN), BTC’s second-tier network, and was the shipment of units of the stablecoin dollar Tether (USDT). The process was carried out by Corey Philips, developer of synonym.

Synonym is a company that conducts research with the aim of expanding the use of the BTC network in other modalities. In that sense, the fact that they were able to send another token on the blockchain is a huge step forward. Experience has shown that LN is able to support other types of tokens, Philips said.

Historic moment

According to Philips, the upload took place on the LN major version, so it was not a test. He used the LN node and user addresses, entering them in specific fields. Then an invoice of the transaction in the amount of 5 USDT was created.

In order to carry out the transaction, the wallet also needs to have BTC balance. In the case of Philips’ example, the address had about 200,000 satoshis (0.00200259 BTC). After opening a channel with the transaction, Philips paid around 0.0009236 BTC to feed the channel.

After confirming the transaction twice, the channel has been fed and Philips can finally send the transaction. He selected the 5 USDT and sent it to the node, confirming the historical fact. For the first time, another token was traded through the BTC network.

Finally, the programmer celebrated the feat with joy at the end of the video. “So this was the first USDT send over the Lightning network in history!” said Philips.

Like everything that happens in BTC, the transaction was recorded and shared on Synonym’s official Twitter profile. According to website data mempool.space the operation was divided into five small transactions, which took place during 17:00 (UTC time).

Synonym Software Ltd. is a company founded by Tether Holdings, issuer of USDT. Launched in November 2021, the company was created with the aim of bringing major advancements to BTC through the second tier.

“Hyperbitcoinization doesn’t magically happen on its own. In order to live in a world without big banks, oppressive regulations or big technology presiding over our lives, we need a strategy and ecosystem to replace the traditional economy. That’s where we come in,” Synonym CEO John Carvalho said at the time.

The use of USDT on the BTC network is a first step in this direction, as it brings new possibilities. The stablecoin runs on a variety of networks including ETH, Tron and Binance Smart Chain. In the future, it is possible that it will also become compatible with the largest blockchain in the world.