What Are USDT0 and USDC.e? Bridged Stablecoins vs Native USDT and USDC, and Whether Exchanges Accept Them

USDT0 is a cross-chain version of USDT: the original USDT is locked in a contract on Ethereum, and an equal amount of USDT0 is then minted on other chains using LayerZero’s OFT standard. USDC.e is USDC that a third party bridged to a chain before Circle launched native USDC there. Neither is a version the issuer issues directly on that chain.

The short version: if you receive or send USDT on Arbitrum or Polygon, it is actually USDT0. The original USDT contracts on these two chains were upgraded in place, and the contract addresses did not change. On 12 October 2026 I checked the public data of 8 international exchanges by contract address, and the “USDT (Arbitrum)” and “USDT (Polygon)” deposit contracts at Binance, Bitget, KuCoin and Gate are all addresses on USDT0’s official deployments page. USDC is the opposite: every exchange whose contracts I could find accepts Circle’s native USDC for USDC deposits, and only OKX (Polygon) and Binance (Avalanche) also list USDC.e separately. Optimism is where mistakes really happen: the chain has two contracts at once, the old bridged USDT and USDT0, and exchanges do not necessarily accept the same one.

This article is a summary of information and not investment advice. Token issuance arrangements and the networks and contracts exchanges support all change. This article reflects what I found in official documentation, official announcements and exchanges’ public data on 12 October 2026. Before you send anything, go by the network and contract shown on the receiving side’s deposit page.

What USDT0 is: USDT locked and minted with LayerZero OFT

How it is created and how to convert it back

According to USDT0’s official documentation, USDT0 uses “lock-and-mint”:

1. The original USDT is locked in the OFT Adapter contract on Ethereum mainnet.
2. An equal amount of USDT0 is minted on the destination chain, keeping it 1:1.
3. To convert back, USDT0 is burned on any chain, and the corresponding USDT on Ethereum is unlocked.

OFT (Omnichain Fungible Token) is an open-source standard developed by LayerZero. The destination chain mints or unlocks the matching amount only after a verification network confirms the cross-chain message. On 12 October 2026 the official deployments page listed 24 chains, including Arbitrum One, Polygon PoS, Optimism, Plasma, Berachain, Mantle, Unichain, X Layer and Stellar (deployments page).

Chains such as Tron and TON, which already had Tether’s native USDT, are not among these 24 native deployments. The official documentation also describes Legacy Mesh, which connects existing USDT deployments to the USDT0 network.

Who issues USDT0? What the official sources say

You often see “USDT0 is issued by Tether” online, but the official sources put it differently:

A more accurate way to put it: USDT0 is launched by Everdawn Labs and backed by USDT locked in a contract on Ethereum. Tether is still the issuer of USDT itself, but the USDT0 layer is not issued directly by Tether.

Chains already switched to USDT0: Arbitrum and Polygon, with both versions on Optimism

• Arbitrum One: a proposal on the Arbitrum DAO forum states that USDT0 went live in January 2025 by upgrading the USDT token contract itself (Arbitrum forum). The Arbitrum contract on the USDT0 deployments page, 0xFd086bC7CD5C481DCC9C85ebE478A1C0b69FCbb9, is the one exchanges use for “USDT (Arbitrum)” deposits; the address did not change.
• Polygon PoS: on 27 August 2025 Polygon announced that USDT had been upgraded to USDT0, that users did not need to do anything, and that the contract address for Polygon’s bridged USDT was disabled as part of the upgrade (Polygon announcement). The contract on the deployments page, 0xc2132D05D31c914a87C6611C10748AEb04B58e8F, is also the one exchanges use for “USDT (Polygon)” deposits.
• Optimism: the USDT0 contract is 0x01bFF41798a0BcF287b996046Ca68b395DbC1071. Another USDT contract, 0x94b008aA00579c1307B0EF2c499aD98a8ce58e58, is labelled a bridged token on Optimism’s block explorer, with a note that it is not issued by Tether and cannot be redeemed with Tether (Optimistic Etherscan). Both are called USDT on the same chain.

What USDC.e is: the bridged version from before Circle’s native USDC

How it differs from native USDC

Circle draws a clear line between the two in its explanation of the Bridged USDC Standard:

• Native USDC: issued by Circle and redeemable 1:1 for US dollars.
• Bridged USDC: created by a third party and backed by USDC locked in a contract on another chain; not issued by Circle and not redeemable with Circle, and not compatible with Circle’s cross-chain protocol, CCTP.

CCTP (Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol) is Circle’s way of moving native USDC across chains by “burn and mint” (Circle CCTP documentation): both sides hold native USDC, with no assets locked in a bridge in between.

Where USDC.e on Arbitrum, Optimism and Polygon came from

The USDC originally circulating on these chains was bridged over from Ethereum. Once Circle launched the native version, the old one was renamed USDC.e on block explorers, and the two tokens now coexist on the same chain. Circle’s USDC contract address page also mentions a bridged version labelled USDC.e on X Layer that is not issued or backed by Circle (Circle contract address page).

Native, bridged and OFT stablecoins compared

(Checked on 2026-10-12.)

A cross-chain message for USDT0 only counts once three independent verification networks (LayerZero DVN, USDT0 DVN and Canary DVN) have all confirmed it. The contracts have been audited by three firms, Guardian, ChainSecurity and Paladin, and the Immunefi bug bounty goes up to US$6 million; the official documentation also states that the contracts are upgradeable (USDT0 security page). The security page does not say who holds the upgrade rights. Being upgradeable means bugs can be fixed, and it also means holders have to trust whoever holds the upgrade rights; this is my inference.

Circle says bridged versions carry some risk but does not list the details. My understanding is that the risk sits with “the portion locked in the bridge”: if the bridge’s contract or verification mechanism fails, the token on the other chain could lose its 1:1 backing. This is an inference; the official sources do not quantify this risk.

Do the major exchanges accept USDT0 and USDC.e?

Most exchanges’ deposit pages only show “USDT” and the network name, not USDT0. On 12 October 2026 I took the contract address for each network from the exchanges’ public currency and network data and compared it with USDT0’s official deployments page and Circle’s USDC contract address page:

The table shows a few things:

• On Arbitrum and Polygon, “USDT” and “USDT0” are the same token. Binance, Bitget, KuCoin and Gate show USDT on their deposit pages, but the contract they actually accept is USDT0. Inferring from the contract comparison, to deposit USDT0 from a wallet you just pick USDT’s Arbitrum or Polygon network; there is no need to look for a separate USDT0 option.
• On Optimism, check the contract. Binance, Bitget and Gate accept USDT0; KuCoin lists the old bridged USDT, and deposits on it are currently closed; OKX lists the two separately.
• Bitfinex does it differently: USDT0 is not merged into USDt but split into 6 separate currencies (Arbitrum One, Ink, Optimism, Plasma, Polygon, Stable). They can be swapped one for one with USDt on the wallet page, but they cannot be traded directly or swapped between USDT0 on different chains, and they require Basic Plus verification or higher (Bitfinex announcement, Plasma announcement).
• Most exchanges do not accept USDC.e. Of Binance, OKX, Bitget, KuCoin and Gate, the exchanges whose data I could find, only OKX (Polygon) and Binance (Avalanche) list USDC.e separately; the USDC networks at the others all accept Circle’s native contract.

For withdrawal fees on each network, see “How to Choose a USDT Withdrawal Network”; for the differences between USDT and USDC themselves, see “USDT vs USDC”.

What happens if you deposit the wrong version

Picking the wrong version is not the same as picking the wrong network: the network is right and so is the address, but the token contract you sent is not the one the receiving side accepts. Common cases:

• USDC.e sent to an exchange’s USDC (Arbitrum) deposit address: the exchange only recognises the native USDC contract, so the deposit will not be credited as USDC; it counts as “an unlisted token on a supported network”.
• Old USDT on Optimism sent to an exchange that accepts USDT0, or the other way round: the two contracts are different, and the same logic applies as in the previous case. This is my inference from the contract comparison; no exchange has a specific explanation for this case.
• USDT0 sent to Bitfinex using the regular USDt network: Bitfinex lists USDT0 as a separate currency, so deposits need the matching USDT0 network.

All of these are “unlisted tokens” for the receiving side, and each exchange handles them differently. At OKX, for example, unsupported tokens that show up under “non-tradable assets” can be withdrawn yourself for a network fee (OKX help). At Bybit, those that appear on the “pending assets” page can be withdrawn yourself; those that do not go through manual recovery for a flat US$200, and only if the assets are worth more than US$500 (Bybit help). Each exchange’s recovery fees, processing times and application process are covered in “USDT Sent on the Wrong Network?”.

Sending to your own wallet is much simpler: USDT0, USDC.e and native USDC use the same address on the same chain. If your wallet does not show the token, adding that token’s contract address to the wallet usually makes it appear.

How to check which version it is before you send

1. Look at the network name on the receiving side’s deposit page. Some exchanges label it directly; OKX, for example, shows “Polygon (USDT0)” and “Polygon (USDC.e)”.
2. Check the contract address. Open the token you hold in your wallet or a block explorer, look at its contract address, and compare it with the table below:

Sources: USDT0 deployments page, Circle USDC contract address page, Arbitrum Foundation, Optimistic Etherscan, checked on 2026-10-12.

3. Send a small amount first when the amount is large, and send the rest once it arrives. This is the same as when choosing a network; for the steps, see “How to Choose a USDT Withdrawal Network”.

One more thing: Tether’s official list of chains supporting USD₮ does not include BNB Smart Chain; on that page, BNB Smart Chain appears only under XAU₮ (Tether). From this I infer that USDT on BEP20 is also not a version Tether issues directly on that chain. I could not find an official explanation of how it is issued, so this article leaves it out of the comparison table.

More articles are on the crypto topic page.

FAQ

Is USDT0 issued by Tether?

The official sources do not say so. USDT0's terms of service are provided by Everdawn Labs Limited; Tether's February 2026 press release says USDT0 was developed and launched by Everdawn Labs; and a Bitfinex announcement states that USDT0 is not issued or redeemed directly by Tether.

Can USDT0 and USDT be swapped one for one?

USDT0's official documentation says every USDT0 is backed by one USDT locked in a contract on Ethereum, and burning USDT0 unlocks the USDT there. How exchanges handle the swap varies: Bitfinex, for example, lists USDT0 as a separate currency that can be swapped one for one with USDt but cannot be traded directly.

What is the difference between USDC.e and USDC?

USDC is the version issued by Circle that can be redeemed one for one for US dollars; USDC.e is a version bridged by a third party, backed by USDC locked in a contract on another chain. Circle states that bridged versions are not issued by it and cannot be redeemed with it.

Is USDT on Arbitrum the same as USDT0?

Yes. The Arbitrum One contract address on USDT0's official deployments page, 0xFd086…Cbb9, is Arbitrum's original USDT contract, and the Arbitrum DAO forum explains that this contract was upgraded directly to USDT0 in January 2025. USDT on Polygon was also upgraded, in August 2025.

Do exchanges accept USDT0?

When I checked the public data of Binance, Bitget, KuCoin and Gate on 12 October 2026, the Arbitrum and Polygon deposit contracts for their USDT were all USDT0 addresses, which means they already accept USDT0; OKX labels USDT0 directly in its network names. Bybit's and MEXC's network lists can only be seen after logging in, and I found no official statement.

What happens if I send USDC.e to an exchange's USDC deposit address?

The address is on the same chain, but the token contract is different, so the exchange will not credit it as USDC. Whether you can get it back depends on the receiving exchange's rules for unlisted tokens. At OKX, for example, unsupported tokens that show up under non-tradable assets can be withdrawn yourself for a network fee.