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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Business
Mark Hooson

How to buy Tether (USDT)

Tether is the world’s largest ‘stablecoin’ by market capitalisation. In theory, stablecoins offer a less volatile alternative to bitcoin and altcoins because their value is tied to a fiat currency such as the US Dollar.

As a result, they’re not typically bought by those looking to speculate on prices. Instead, Tether and other stablecoins are all about decentralised finance or ‘DeFi’, and the anonymity they offer.

The UK government is looking into making stablecoins an officially recognised payment method, despite their having shown volatility of their own this year, when Tether lost its 1:1 peg with the US Dollar last month.

If you’re aware of the risks but still interested, here’s how to buy Tether (USDT).

Remember that cryptocurrency trading is not regulated in the UK and all your capital is at risk. You could lose all your money, and you would have no redress to compensation.

Choose an exchange

Like most other cryptocurrencies, you can buy Tether via an exchange such as Kraken or eToro using a fiat currency such as pounds Sterling, or other cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.

While major exchanges offer more or less the same service, you should check what payment methods they accept, what fees they charge, whether they allow transfers out and if it offers a hosted wallet in which to store your public and private keys.

Of course you’ll also need to choose an exchange that trades in Tether (USDT).

Choose a payment method

Bank transfer is usually the most cost-effective way to buy cryptocurrencies as exchanges don’t tend to charge any fees on them. Debit card payments are widely accepted but can carry charges of up to 2.99% of the amount you spend.

Using debt to fund cryptocurrency purchase, for example by using a credit card, is not recommended.

Make a purchase

Navigate to the Tether (USDT) page within your exchange’s website or app and enter the amount, in pounds, you’d like to exchange for Tether. You’ll be shown a preview of how much your Sterling will buy you.

If you’re happy, confirm your purchase and wait for the transaction to be verified. This usually takes a few minutes, after which you’ll be able to see your Tether in your account.

Choose a storage method

Most exchanges offer hosted wallets, which means you store your public and private keys in a wallet hosted on the exchange’s servers. With a hosted wallet you won’t have to pay anything for storage.

Another option is to store your keys in a third-party, non-custodial wallet such as Trust Wallet or Meta Mask. This comes with a fee and puts you in complete control of your keys, but you’ll need to take responsibility for your own seed phrases to access your keys.

Lose your seed phrase and you’ll lose your keys, effectively locking you out of your Tether holdings.

You could go for a so-called ‘cold wallet’, which is a physical storage device like a flash drive that isn’t connected to the internet. You’d have to buy one, which means there’s a cost, but your keys will be safer from hackers since they can’t easily cross the air gap between the device and your computer using the internet.

Malware exists that could compromise your cold wallet while it’s plugged into your computer, however, and you’d still have to take good care of your seed phrase to retain access to your keys.

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