What is USDT? Tether's own terms on networks, freezes and casino deposits
What is USDT?
USDT is a token Tether issues and redeems, which its terms say is "100% backed" by reserves. Tether lists 13 chains for it, can freeze any holder's tokens, and says it has frozen more than $5 billion. 20 of 24 register casinos list USDT; the network is recorded for 2.
Piece published Reviewed by CryptoGuardz Register Desk, editorial desk
USDT is a token issued and redeemed by Tether, which its terms define as "the Digital Token referencing a unit of Fiat issued and redeemed by Tether" and say is "100% backed" by reserves. Tether lists 13 blockchains it issues USDT on. Its terms let it freeze any holder's tokens, and Tether says those freezes now total more than $5 billion. On this register, 20 of 24 casinos list USDT.
That last figure is the easy one. The harder one is which network each casino takes it on, because the ticker is shared across chains and the chain decides whether a deposit arrives or disappears. Tether's documents were read on 9 October 2026. Nothing here is financial advice.
What is USDT, according to Tether's terms?
A claim on Tether, written as a token. Section 1.1.39 of the terms, last updated 26 February 2026, gives the definition quoted above. Section 4.1 states the backing:
Each Tether Token in circulation is 100% backed by an amount of assets
The same section adds that "Tether Tokens are backed by Tether's Reserves, including Fiat, but Tether Tokens are not Fiat themselves." Only a verified customer of Tether can have tokens issued or redeemed directly, and the fee schedule explains why almost nobody reading this is one:
| Tether fee schedule item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Verification fee | 150 USD in Tether Tokens |
| Minimum acquisition or redemption | 100,000 USD |
| Fee per redemption | The greater of $1,000 or 0.1% |
| Fee per acquisition | 0.1% |
A player buys USDT from an exchange or a broker that sits in front of Tether, and sells it back the same way. The direct right of redemption the terms describe belongs to the 100,000-dollar customer, not to the holder of 300 USDT on a casino balance. Tether's transparency page says "The Tether Issuer's assets exceed its liabilities." The figures under its balance headings did not render to this desk's fetch on 9 October 2026, so no circulation or reserve number is reproduced here: not verified.
How to buy USDT
Through an exchange account, in practice. The exchange register records USDT withdrawal networks for 11 of its 18 exchanges, read from each exchange's own network list between 22 September and 8 October 2026. For the other 7, the network list could not be read or USDT is not offered: Robinhood Crypto's US availability page lists Tether among assets it does not support for trading, and Cash App's crypto offer is bitcoin. Each exchange's entry is on the exchange register.
Buying is the simple part. What matters is the network chosen at the withdrawal screen, which is where the next section starts.
Which blockchains is USDT issued on?
Thirteen, on Tether's supported protocols page read on 9 October 2026: Ethereum, Avalanche, Cosmos via Kava, Celo, Kaia, Tron, Liquid, Solana, Polkadot AssetHub, Tezos, Near, TON and Aptos.
Five more are listed as deprecated. The page says Tether is "no longer issuing or obligated to redeem Tether Tokens" on Kusama, Bitcoin Cash SLP, Omni Layer, EOS and Algorand, and section 4.1 of the terms dates the end of redemption on those chains to 1 September 2025. A USDT balance on any of them is a token Tether no longer promises to buy back.
One gap a player will notice. BNB Smart Chain appears on Tether's page, but the only Tether token shown for it there is XAU₮, the gold token. The USDT that exchanges offer on BNB Chain is not on Tether's own list of USD₮ chains, and who issues it is not disclosed on Tether's page. The same applies to anything wrapped or bridged: section 4.5 says such tokens "are not sold or issued through the Site or supported by Tether."
Can Tether freeze USDT?
Yes, and the terms say so in three places. Section 2:
Tether may suspend or terminate your access to the Site or any of the Services, freeze any Tether Tokens held by you,
Section 9 opens with "Tether reserves the right to bar transactions from or to, to undertake enhanced due diligence," and section 16 lists among Tether's remedies "the right to either freeze your Tether Tokens or seize" them. These are not powers over Tether's own customers only. A frozen address cannot move its USDT on that chain, whoever holds the key, and the address does not have to belong to a verified Tether customer.
How much USDT has Tether frozen?
More than $5 billion, by Tether's own count on 28 September 2026. The figures come from Tether's newsroom, not from an audit, and two releases five months apart show the total growing:
| Tether release | Total frozen | Linked to US authorities | Agencies | Countries | Investigations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 April 2026 | more than $4.4 billion | over $2.1 billion | more than 340 | 65 | more than 2,300 |
| 28 September 2026 | more than $5 billion | more than $2.4 billion | 340+ | 70 | more than 2,850 |
The September release is not consistent with itself: its body says "more than 2,850 investigations globally", its headline summary says more than 2,900. The table uses the body. Neither release breaks the total down by chain, by year or by how much was later released to victims, so none of that is published here.
For a casino player the point is narrower. A casino hot wallet is an address like any other. If an operator's address were frozen, the USDT in it would stop moving, and the terms of the casino, not Tether's, would decide what happens to player balances. That case is not addressed in any of the 24 register records.
Why does the network matter for a casino deposit?
Because USDT on Tron and USDT on Ethereum are different tokens on different ledgers, and a deposit address belongs to one of them. Section 5 of Tether's terms puts the risk on the sender: "Tether Token transactions are not reversible." MetaMask's help centre sets out what happens next when the chain is wrong:
If you sent tokens to an address on a non-EVM network, it's likely your tokens are gone forever.
Between EVM chains, the same page says "the tokens are not lost", because "Your Secret Recovery Phrase generates the same address across all EVM-compatible networks". That rescue works for a wallet the sender controls. A casino deposit address is controlled by the casino, so a cross-chain mistake there is recovered only if the operator chooses to do it.
Fees follow the chain too. A USDT withdrawal on Ethereum pays Ethereum gas; the same amount on Tron or Solana pays those chains' fees. The register does not measure network fees, and exchanges show their own figure at the withdrawal screen, so the figure to compare is the one on that screen.
Which networks do exchanges pay USDT out on?
Counted across the 11 exchanges whose USDT withdrawal list was read:
| Network | Exchanges withdrawing USDT on it |
|---|---|
| Ethereum | 11 |
| Tron | 9 |
| Solana | 9 |
| Arbitrum | 9 |
| Polygon | 8 |
| Avalanche | 8 |
| Optimism | 6 |
| TON | 6 |
| BNB Chain | 5 |
Coinbase withdraws USDT on Ethereum, Polygon and Arbitrum only, and Crypto.com Exchange lists no Tron route. Both are recorded on the exchange register. On the wallet side, 16 of the 30 wallets on the wallet register name Tron and 17 name BNB Chain, so a self-custody wallet chosen for one network may not hold USDT on another.
How many register casinos accept USDT on each network?
Twenty of 24 casinos list USDT in their own currency documents, recorded on the USDT payment page. The four that do not are Coins.Game, Rollbit, Shuffle and Thunderpick: three have no coin list in a document the register treats as binding, and Rollbit's help centre names five assets without USDT.
The per-network count cannot be computed from the register as it stands. Only 2 of the 20 records name a network for USDT:
| Casino | USDT network in the record |
|---|---|
| mBit | ERC-20 only, per the operator's help centre |
| Duelbits | More than one network, not itemised in the record |
| 18 others | Not recorded |
For the other 18, the casino's coin list names the asset and the register did not record the chain. That is a gap in this desk's records as much as in the operators' pages, and it is the reason the USDT chain page prints a roster rather than a network grid. The deposit screen of each casino shows the network it accepts. That screen, matched character for character against the network selected at the exchange or wallet, is the check that counts. The Tron chain page covers the rail most exchanges in the table above support.
What this does not show
How much USDT is in circulation on each chain: the transparency page figures did not render. Who issues the USDT offered on BNB Chain. Which networks 18 of the 20 USDT casinos accept. Whether any casino has had an address frozen by Tether: no register record or Tether release read names one. Each of these is not verified.
Quick answers
What is USDT?
A token Tether issues and redeems, defined in section 1.1.39 of its terms and described in section 4.1 as "100% backed" by reserves. Tether lists 13 chains for it. Twenty of 24 register casinos list it, per the USDT payment page.
Can Tether freeze my USDT?
Yes. Section 2 of the terms lets Tether "freeze any Tether Tokens held by you", and section 16 adds a right to "freeze your Tether Tokens or seize" them. Tether says it has frozen more than $5 billion to 28 September 2026.
Is USDT on BNB Chain issued by Tether?
Tether's supported protocols page, read on 9 October 2026, lists 13 USD₮ chains and BNB Smart Chain is not among them. Five of 11 exchanges on the register still withdraw USDT on BNB Chain.
What happens if I send USDT on the wrong network?
Tether's terms say transactions "are not reversible". MetaMask says tokens sent to a non-EVM network are "likely" gone. At a casino, recovery is up to the operator. Each register entry links its terms.
If gambling has stopped being a choice, the responsible gambling page lists the helplines and self-exclusion schemes by market. Outside those markets, Gambling Therapy offers free support at gamblingtherapy.org.
Sources
- Tether terms of service, last updated 26 February 2026, retrieved 2026-10-09
- Tether supported protocols, retrieved 2026-10-09
- Tether fee schedule, retrieved 2026-10-09
- Tether transparency page, retrieved 2026-10-09
- Tether news, Tether Has Supported Nearly $550 Million in Iran-Linked USD₮ Freezes, 28 September 2026, retrieved 2026-10-09
- Tether news, Tether Supports Freeze of More Than $344 Million in USD₮, 23 April 2026, retrieved 2026-10-09
- MetaMask help centre, I sent crypto to the wrong place, retrieved 2026-10-09
- CryptoGuardz casino register, coin lists in data/operators, documents read 2026-09-02 to 2026-10-02
- CryptoGuardz USDT payment page, 20 of 24 operators
- CryptoGuardz exchange register, USDT withdrawal networks, read 2026-09-22 to 2026-10-08
- CryptoGuardz wallet register, chains named by each wallet
- CryptoGuardz safer gambling file
About this piece
Compiled by the CryptoGuardz register team from the sources listed above. Research and drafting are AI-assisted and reviewed by a named editor before publication. Nothing here is a recommendation to gamble. If a figure or a reading is wrong, tell us and the correction is logged in public.