Native USDt is available on Astar through XCM
A guide to using the most secure bridge to transfer USDt!
Overview
Recently, Tether.to announced that the Tether token (or USDt) is live on Polkadot. The addition of Tether to the Polkadot ecosystem is another milestone from the industry’s leading stablecoin as it continues to increase its presence in decentralized ecosystems. By leveraging XCM in the Polkadot ecosystem, USDt can now be transferred between all blockchains that are connected to the Polkadot Relay Chain. Below is a quick guide to transferring USDt from Binance or Bitfinex to Polkadot and Astar Network via XCM.
XCM — The most secure bridge
XCM, or cross-chain messaging, is the most exciting feature of the Polkadot ecosystem as its described as an ultra-secure bridge. XCM operates within the powerful Relay Chain, using Polkadot’s shared security. Having an ultra-secure bridge embedded in the runtime of each parachain connected to the Relay Chain is more relevant than ever. Listing the recent bridge hacks in this article is irrelevant, but the blockchain industry understands that a trustless bridge is essential to the security and growth of any ecosystem. Polkadot offers this trustless bridge to all its connected parachains with XCM!
Today, with multi-chain bridges we need to trust third parties to lock our tokens and mint them as wrapped assets on the other side. This dependence on trust becomes an increasing security risk as more value is locked to a bridge.
Having XCM as part of the overarching security protocol allows the trustless movement of assets and information. It’s even possible to move NFTs to and from any chain by using the security of the Relay Chain (made possible with the introduction of XCM v3).
You can read about the intricacies of XCM in Gavin Wood’s three-part article here. However, this article will instead overview how to use XCM to transfer USDt to Astar Network.
Transfer USDt to Astar
Let’s simply start with an infographic that explains an overview of transferring USDt to Astar Network. We are aware that this is not the most user-friendly process, which is why we have made this guide. The experience of transferring Statemint assets, such as USDt, is continually being improved by different teams, including Astar.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Currently USDt is not set as an isSufficient asset, meaning that transfers need DOT as a fee for every transaction that includes USDt interaction. Because of Polkadot governance architecture, changing this requirement will take a minimum of 28 days from the publication of this article. So, it’s very important that you follow all these steps correctly to ensure that successfully transfer USDt to Polkadot.
Part 1: Top up your Statemint wallet with DOT
Again, before transferring USDt to the Polkadot ecosystem, you need to make sure that you have DOT (Polkadot native asset) available in your Statemint account.
- Make sure you have full control over your wallet (private key, JSON file).
- Connect to Polkadot and top up your wallet with DOT. (Link to apps wallet: https://polkadot.js.org/apps/?rpc=wss%3A%2F%2Fpolkadot-rpc.dwellir.com#/accounts)
- Teleport a minimum of 0.1 DOT to your account on Statemint. Remember, that you need to have enough DOT in your account to keep it alive (Accounts → Teleport). (Read about minimum balance on Polkadot.)
Part 2: Get USDt & Transfer to Polkadot
At the time of publication, Bitfinex and Binance offer to send USDt directly to Statemint (Polkadot’s asset parachain). Parity is working with other exchanges that will soon enable sending USDt from other sources to Polkadot (Statemint). Updates will be posted on Polkadot’s Twitter.
Sending USDt to Polkadot is straightforward:
- Get yourself KYC’ed on one of the supported exchanges.
- Deposit USDt to your account.
- Withdraw your USDt to Polkadot (Statemint). (Note: we are saying Polkadot, but your USDt will be transferred to Statemint parachain.)
Part 3: Transfer USDt to Astar
The final part is the easiest because this is what we can control at Astar to give the best UX to our users.
- Go to the Astar Portal and connect your wallet.
- Choose Transfer next to USDt in our XCM asset list.
- Next, select Cross-Chain Transfer (XCM) to transfer USDt from Statemint to Astar.
- Pick a destination (Astar Native or Astar EVM) to transfer USDt to your desired wallet.
- Confirm and sign.
That’s it! You now have native USDt on Astar Network!
About Astar
Astar Network — The Future of Smart Contracts for Multichain.
Astar Network supports the building of dApps with EVM and WASM smart contracts and offers developers true interoperability, with cross-consensus messaging (XCM). We are made by developers and for developers. Astar’s unique Build2Earn model empowers developers to get paid through a dApp staking mechanism for the code they write and dApps they build.
Astar’s vibrant ecosystem has become Polkadot’s leading Parachain globally, supported by all major exchanges and tier 1 VCs. Astar offers the flexibility of all Ethereum and WASM toolings for developers to start building their dApps. To accelerate growth on Polkadot and Kusama Networks, Astar SpaceLabs offers an Incubation Hub for top TVL dApps.
