Wormhole has introduced native USDT transfers for several major blockchains, including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, Polygon, BNB Chain, and Avalanche. This new functionality leverages the decentralized exchange (DEX) infrastructure provided by Uniswap v3 and PancakeSwap pools, according to Wormhole’s official blog post.
Native USDT Transfers
The system utilizes Wormhole’s cross-chain capabilities combined with the concentrated liquidity pools of PancakeSwap and Uniswap v3. Key features include:
- Competitive fee pricing for USDT transfers.
- Gas-free transfers on the destination chain, allowing movement of USDT without needing assets on the receiving blockchain.
- A user-friendly interface that simplifies the transfer process to a single function call via the Portal app.
Architecture
Each supported blockchain will have a dedicated xUSDT/USDT pool. This pool facilitates trading between xUSDT (Wormhole USDT) and local, wrapped USDT. As these pools are standard Uniswap v3 or PancakeSwap pools, liquidity providers (LPs) can participate freely and set their preferred fee structures. Most liquidity is expected to concentrate near the median, though some LPs might opt for varying fee rates.
How It Works
For instance, transferring USDT from Optimism to Base involves swapping USDT to Wormhole xUSDT on Uniswap (Optimism), transferring xUSDT to Base, and then swapping it to Base-native USDT on Uniswap (Base). This entire process incurs minimal fees and is completed at high speed. Users begin with native USDT on one blockchain and end with native USDT on another, with minimal cost.
Availability
At launch, native-to-native USDT transfers are available across Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, Polygon, BNB Chain, and Avalanche. PancakeSwap pools are active on Arbitrum, Base, and BNB Chain, while Uniswap pools are live on Optimism, Polygon, and Avalanche.
Developer Integration
Developers can integrate native USDT transfer functionality into their applications using Wormhole Connect. The widget can be accessed here and documentation is available here. More advanced integrations via the Wormhole SDK are expected soon.
About Wormhole
Wormhole is a leading interoperability platform that enables multichain applications and bridges at scale. It connects developers to liquidity and users across more than 30 blockchain networks, supporting use cases in DeFi, NFTs, governance, and more. Trusted by projects like Circle and Uniswap, Wormhole has facilitated over $40 billion in transfers through more than 1 billion cross-chain messages.
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