3 Things You Must Know About Tether’s Terms of Service

Stablecoin issuer Tether’s Terms of Services were updated on December 7, 2023, and if you hold or accept USDT, you should pay attention.

(Photo by Joshua Sukoff on Unsplash)

Tether is a company that mints and redeems USDT, a dollar-based stablecoin intended to maintain a value of 1:1 with the United States dollar, and is widely used in cryptocurrency transactions.

But who issues the stablecoin Tether, or USDT, and what are the contractual rights of a USDT holder?

Tether’s Terms of Service (“Terms”) can be found here but they apply to and what (if any) contractual relationship is created with secondary users (those without a direct relationship with Tether) is unclear.

If one considers Tether to be a derivative, then typically the terms surrounding a derivative contract need to be novated between counterparties via a fresh set of signed agreements.

Whereas if one sees Tether as a product, with the Terms more of a “user’s manual” rather than a “warranty” that accompanies the usage of Tether, the Terms would apply to Tether’s usage from that perspective.

Either way, regardless of one’s opinion of whether the Terms apply to your use of Tether (or not), matters very little for…