What happens if you send tether (USDT) to a bitcoin address?

0

I have both a GDAX and a Binance account. I chose to withdraw my tether and move them into GDAX into the bitcoin address. After about an hour of the transaction, it said it was complete with "10 confirmations"(the number of confirmations keep increasing). I have checked into my GDAX account however and it still shows no BTC or transaction history, whereas it shows that it is complete within Binance.

Is this transaction valid (will it work)? If so, how much time does such a transaction normally take?

Devin Ersoy

Posted 2018-04-24T03:19:03.473

Reputation: 103

Answers

3

USDT is part of the omni layer on top of Bitcoin.

While the transaction will go through (since any omni transaction is a valid Bitcoin transaction), you will not be credited for the USDT as GDAX is a USD exchange. They don't support USDT, and hence won't be trying to detect omni transactions for it.

You should contact GDAX support about how to recover your USDT.

Raghav Sood

Posted 2018-04-24T03:19:03.473

Reputation: 10 897

Where is the usdt then currently (which address)? Have I lost it as of now?Devin Ersoy 2018-04-24T03:38:46.953

Where is the tether if is in neither gdax nor binance and the transaction show complete?Devin Ersoy 2018-04-24T03:39:39.793

The USDT would technically be in your GDAX address. It's just that GDAX has no idea what USDT or the omni protocol is, so it doesn't know that. You can use https://omniexplorer.info/ to check the USDT balance.

Your only hope is that GDAX support is willing to make an omni transaction as an exception from the automated system to send your USDT to an exchange or wallet that actually supports it

Raghav Sood 2018-04-24T03:51:23.393

Ok, I don't see a reason why they wouldn't be able to. Hopefully it works out. Gdax/coinbase are reputable and therefore would be willing to assist with this considering many other people probably did this too (let's hope).Devin Ersoy 2018-04-24T03:57:10.410