Tether Investments, the investment arm of the world's largest stablecoin issuer, has made a strategic investment in LayerZero Labs, the developer of the LayerZero interoperability protocol. This move is a direct bet on the technology powering USDt0, a blockchain-agnostic version of Tether's USDT stablecoin.
The USDT0 initiative, built using LayerZero's Omnichain Fungible Token (OFT) standard, has already facilitated over $63 billion in cross-chain liquidity transfers across 18 different blockchain ecosystems since its launch in January 2025. According to a company press release, this figure has since grown to over $70 billion. The system enables direct cross-chain transfers without relying on traditional bridges, reducing friction and minimizing associated risks.
Co-Founder Lorenzo R. highlighted the collaborative effort, stating, "This milestone is really a reflection of the ecosystems and partners that chose to build with us... Connecting 18 major blockchain ecosystems this past year reflects the depth of that collaboration." The integration has been particularly active on the Polygon network, where the upgrade to Polygon-native USDT0 has simplified transactions and deepened liquidity.
Beyond enhancing stablecoin utility for DeFi, Tether's investment also supports more experimental use cases like "agentic finance," where AI agents could autonomously manage wallets and payments using the same cross-chain infrastructure. The financial terms of Tether's investment in LayerZero were not disclosed.
This development follows Tether's broader investment strategy, which includes recent acquisitions in tokenized gold and other sectors, funded by the profits from its stablecoin operations. Following the news, LayerZero's native token, ZRO, experienced volatility, initially gaining up to 10% before retracing.
