Tether, whose $USDT token has a market capitalization of over $189 billion, has introduced a structured grant program to accelerate the development of open-source tools for local-first AI systems and decentralized payment infrastructure.
Instead of traditional funding models, grants are task-based, awarding fixed payouts for specific technical milestones, typically between $1,500 and $4,000, paid in $USDT or Bitcoin.
Four areas of focus
The grants will be used for four parts of Tether’s open source stack. QVAC is the company’s on-device AI platform, where inference is performed locally without sending data to remote servers.
The Wallet Development Kit allows developers to embed self-custodial wallets directly into apps, handling key generation, transaction signing, and fund transfers without hosted services.
MDK focuses on Bitcoin mining infrastructure. Pears supports peer-to-peer networking. Grants also include documentation, research into edge AI and cryptography, and open standards tooling.
According to Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, current technologies often impose structural compromises on developers. Many solutions rely on centralized intermediaries to control application behavior, or rely on business models that encourage extensive data collection and reuse, which he argues do not align with user interests.
“We take a different approach. If you can build something that runs locally, has immediate value and is not dependent on external suppliers, then we finance it. This is how you get real systems on the market,” says Ardoino.
Advance financing and early interest
Tether has made a series of targeted contributions to Bitcoin and open source development efforts, including $100,000 grants awarded in consecutive years to the BTCPay Server Foundation and a $250,000 donation to OpenSats in late 2025.
Additionally, through its Plan B partnership with the City of Lugano, Tether has announced 500 scholarships for students in 2023 to support blockchain and Bitcoin-focused summer school programs, expanding its involvement into education and developer training in addition to infrastructure financing.