Tether Lending

USDT is the largest US dollar stablecoin by supply and the primary quote asset across crypto exchanges, issued by Tether Limited on a mint-and-burn model against a reserve of cash, Treasuries and other assets. USDT pays no yield to holders. Every USDT return comes from lending it, and Staking Rewards tracks what each venue pays live — including the venues, like Maple, that are credit desks rather than lending pools.

The live table on this page ranks every tracked USDT venue, and the rates come from two different businesses. Aave and Spark are non-custodial lending pools priced by utilisation. Maple is an institutional credit platform — the rate is set by loans to borrowers it underwrites, not by a pool curve, which is why it usually prices above the pools and why the risk is credit risk rather than utilisation risk. Reading a single "USDT APY" without knowing which of the two produced it is the most common mistake on this asset.

The venue decides most of the answer. Non-custodial pools carry smart-contract, oracle and liquidity risk, which is what the DeFi risk grade on each venue row measures. Credit platforms carry borrower default risk and, usually, a redemption notice period rather than instant withdrawal. On top of both sits USDT's own issuer and reserve risk, and the fact that Tether's attestations are less granular than a US-regulated issuer's — a real difference from USDC, and one worth pricing rather than ignoring.

They usually pay within a point of each other on comparable venues, and the live table on both pages shows the current gap. The durable differences are elsewhere: USDT has deeper offshore and exchange liquidity and a wider venue set including credit desks; USDC has a US-regulated issuer and more detailed reserve reporting. Neither is dominant on both axes, which is why the honest answer names the trade rather than picking a winner.

USDT operates on a mint-and-burn model: new tokens are minted when users deposit fiat currency with Tether Limited, and tokens are burned when users redeem USDT for fiat. The total supply fluctuates based on market demand.

Reserve backing: Tether publishes quarterly attestation reports detailing its reserve composition, which includes US Treasury bills, overnight reverse repurchase agreements, money market funds, cash, and other investments. Tether claims 1:1 backing for all outstanding USDT.

Institutional consideration: Unlike Proof-of-Stake native tokens, USDT supply is not subject to inflationary emissions. Yield is generated externally through DeFi protocol participation rather than through protocol-level issuance.

Lending pays a borrowing rate, not a protocol reward. There is no validator, no consensus emission, no slashing and no unbonding period — the rate is a price set by borrowers, so it moves continuously and can fall to near zero when demand dries up. A staking reward is issued by the network on a published schedule; a lending rate is not issued by anyone. That is also why Staking Rewards rates the *venue* on a stablecoin page and the *asset* on a proof-of-stake one.