Free Bitcoin is here! Tether announces the launch of a Bitcoin faucet; download the wallet and post on X to receive an airdrop of BTC.

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Tether announced a BTC faucet campaign on 4/29. Users who download tether.wallet and tag the account in a reply to the tweet can receive a small amount of BTC via the Lightning Network—this is the first time Tether has actively airdropped Bitcoin instead of USDT. This initiative is supported by the self-custody wallet ecosystem that officially launched on 4/14, reaching 570 million users globally, as well as Tether’s holdings of 97,000 BTC with an unrealized profit of $2.1 billion. (Previous coverage: Tether launches official self-custody wallet tether.wallet! Featuring zero gas fees and email-style addresses, embracing 570 million global users) (Background: Tether buys another 951 BTC for $70 million! Total holdings exceed 97,000 BTC, with $2.1 billion in unrealized profits) The BTC faucet campaign was announced with steps so simple they hardly seem like serious business: download tether.wallet, reply to Tether’s official X post, and tag @btc along with your own tether.me username, and Tether will send a small amount of BTC directly to your wallet via the Lightning Network. The entire process takes less than ten minutes, with a near-zero barrier to entry. But here is the question: Why did Tether airdrop BTC instead of USDT? To understand this, one must first clarify what tether.wallet is. On April 14, 2026, Tether officially launched its own self-custody wallet application, just two weeks ago. This wallet features three designs that distinguish it from most wallets on the market: - Email-style addresses: Replaces long, traditional hash addresses with an [email protected] format, reducing the risk of transfer errors. - Gas-free tokens: Transaction fees are deducted directly from the asset being sent, eliminating the need to hold ETH or other chain-native tokens to pay for gas. - 570 million user base: As of March 2026, Tether’s technology has reached over 570 million people worldwide. This wallet serves as an interface to transition these users from "passive USDT recipients" to "active self-custodians." Supported assets include USD₮ (Ethereum, Polygon, Plasma, Arbitrum), XAU₮, USA₮, as well as the Bitcoin mainnet and Lightning Network. Lightning is not an afterthought—it is a core move in Tether’s strategy. The Lightning Network makes this faucet campaign technically feasible. A single BTC transfer on the main chain can easily cost several dollars in fees during peak times, making an airdrop of a few hundred satoshis a losing proposition. Lightning’s micro-payments are nearly free, allowing Tether to distribute symbolic amounts to a massive user base without incurring losses. However, Tether’s layout for Lightning goes far beyond this. Tether has long invested in ecosystem projects like Lightning Labs and Synonym, while deeply participating in the Taproot Assets protocol—a protocol that allows stablecoins to circulate natively on the Lightning Network, transforming Lightning from a "pure BTC payment rail" into a "Layer 2 infrastructure where BTC and USDT circulate together." In other words, Tether is deeply binding its stablecoin business with Bitcoin Layer 2. This is not the first time Tether has crossed the boundaries of stablecoins. USDT was originally born on Bitcoin’s Omni Layer. Later, as the Omni ecosystem declined, Tether gradually shifted its focus to high-throughput chains like Ethereum and Tron. But Bitcoin has never truly left Tether’s vision—the form of the conversation has simply shifted from issuing stablecoins to buying Bitcoin itself. In the first quarter of 2026, Tether purchased another 951 BTC, bringing its total holdings to over 97,000 BTC, with an unrealized profit of approximately $2.1 billion at current prices. This batch of BTC is not a rounding error in financial operations, but a clear strategic reserve—Tether is betting on the long-term status of Bitcoin using its own balance sheet. The first-ever airdrop of BTC instead of USDT occurs against this backdrop. Past Tether airdrop campaigns were almost exclusively conducted in USDT to promote stablecoin usage; switching to BTC this time means Tether is consciously incorporating "Bitcoin holders" into its user ecosystem, rather than just viewing them as potential USDT users. Connecting these dots, the signal is quite clear: Tether is redefining its identity. For the past decade, Tether’s core narrative has been "USDT is the world’s largest stablecoin." This narrative has not changed, but Tether has layered a second one on top of it: Bitcoin infrastructure provider. tether.wallet’s native support for Lightning, investments in the Lightning ecosystem, the issuance of USDT on Lightning via Taproot Assets, and the holding of 9

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