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Tether (USDT) is one of the most popular stablecoins by market cap and trading volume globally, yet not many people know the difference between Tether TRC-20 and Tether ERC-20. In this article, we’ll explain all you need to know about them and their differences.
What is Tether (USDT)?
Tether is a stablecoin cryptocurrency hosted on Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains. It is called a stablecoin because it was originally designed to always be worth US$1.00, maintaining $1.00 in reserves for each tether issued.
Founded in July 2014 by Craig Sellars, Brock Pierce, and Reeve Collins, Tether (USDT) was originally known as “Realcoin”.
This cryptocurrency is used by crypto investors who want to avoid the volatility of other cryptocurrencies while keeping value within the crypto market.
In order to solve two major issues with existing cryptocurrencies, Tether was created: high volatility and convertibility between fiat and cryptocurrencies.
What is Tether ERC-20?
Tether (USDT) has accelerated its journey on Ethereum, a global platform for smart contracts that enables the creation of crypto tokens based on a variety of standards. The most popular of which is the ERC-20 standard, which lays foundational rules about crypto tokens created on Ethereum to make them compatible with each other. Tether (USDT) was issued on Ethereum following the ERC-20 standard in great quantity, which makes for around 50% of the total supply of the stablecoin.
What is Tether TRC-20?
Similar to Ethereum with ERC-20, Tron, another famous crypto ecosystem, has TRC-20. There is almost no difference between the two standards, so quite a bit of Tether (USDT) has been issued on Tron. Note that USDT issued on Tron differs from USDT issued on Ethereum, despite their nearly identical characteristics.
What is the Difference Between The Tether Networks: TRC-20 vs. ERC-20
We’ll be taking a look at the differences between Tether TRC-20 and. ERC-20 according to some factors.
1. Address Style:
ERC-20 starts with ‘0’ and ‘x’ e.g. 0xbd7e…. While TRC-20 starts with a capital e.g. T9zP14….
2. Network:
ERC-20 is Ethereum (ETH) network, meanwhile, TRC-20 is Tron network.
3. Transfer Speed:
ERC-20 transactions take quite a few minutes. TRC-20, compared to ERC-20, is faster and rages from a few seconds to a few minutes.
4. Fees:
ERC-20 cost 30 USDT while TRC-20 cost 2 USDT
Closing Statement
Tether’s total supply is split between different blockchains, two of the most significant are Tron and Ethereum, through the TRC-20 standard, and ERC-20 standard, respectively. Both have their pros and cons.
The upside of using Tether ERC-20 is that it can be directly exchanged for any other ERC-20 crypto token while TRC-20 is far much cheaper and faster.
