How is USDT sent through USDT0 and LayerZero taxed in Germany?
In short
If you send USDT through USDT0 to your own wallet on another chain, you're not selling anything. USDT arrives there again, it keeps its purchase date and its cost basis, and the one-year holding period keeps running. That's how TaxMaxi reads a bridge. No rule says so explicitly, and there is also the reading that every bridge is a sale.
The same goes for any other token its issuer sends between chains over LayerZero.
- As of:
- 23 October 2026
- Based on:
- § 23 EStG, BMF letter of 6 March 2025
What is USDT0?
USDT0 moves Tether's USDT from one chain to another over LayerZero, a network for messages between chains. Your USDT is locked on Ethereum, and USDT0 issues the same amount on the other chain. On the way back it's burned there and released again on Ethereum. Many issuers send their tokens this way, as a LayerZero OFT.
- The app usdt0.to You choose the chain and the amount, or use an app that runs USDT0 in the background.
- The message LayerZero It carries the transfer and its number to the other chain, for a fee in ETH or SOL.
- The issue USDT0 on the other chain It issues you the same amount of USDT.
For tax, what counts is what reaches you: the same USDT, on the other chain.
USDT0 at a glance
- Type
- Bridge between chains
- App
- usdt0.to
- Solana
- 76y77prsiCMvXMjuoZ5VRrhG5qYBrUMYTE5WgHqgjEn6LayerZero OFT program
- Solana
- 7a4WjyR8VZ7yZz5XJAKm39BUGn5iT9CKcv2pmG9tdXVHLayerZero OFT program
- Solana
- 6doghB248px58JSSwG4qejQ46kFMW4AMj7vzJnWZHNZnLayerZero OFT program
- Solana
- Fuww9mfc8ntAwxPUzFia7VJFAdvLppyZwhPJoXySZXf7LayerZero OFT program
- Ethereum
- 0x1a44076050125825900e736c501f859c50fe728cEndpointV2
- Ethereum
- 0x6C96dE32CEa08842dcc4058c14d3aaAD7Fa41deeUSDT0 OFT Adapter
- Ethereum
- 0x1F748c76dE468e9D11bd340fA9D5CBADf315dFB0Legacy Mesh OFT
A USDT0 transfer on both chains
A real USDT transfer through USDT0 from Ethereum to Solana, from a stranger's public wallets, the way TaxMaxi reads it: locked on Ethereum, issued on Solana, and tied together by the message number both sides carry.
- −6,829.995011 USDT Sent via USDT0to your own wallet on Solana: not a disposal, purchase date and cost go with it
- −3.416295 USDT USDT0 feewhat the bridge or the app keeps for the transfer
- −0.000513642062450798 ETH USDT0 feefor the transfer; the ETH paid count as disposed of
- −0.000913646847559419 ETH Network feethe ETH paid count as disposed of, and the fee isn't deducted anywhere
- +6,829.995011 USDT Arrived via USDT0the same token, with its purchase date and cost from there: not an acquisition
USDT0 takes a small share of the USDT, and LayerZero takes its fee in ETH. The amount that arrives on Solana is exactly the amount named as transferred.
An example in euros
The example uses SOL so that there's a gain to work out; the same applies to USDT. You buy SOL, send it a few months later over a bridge to your own wallet on Ethereum, and sell it there after more than a year. This is how TaxMaxi works it out:
- 10 January 2024Bought 10 SOL for €1,000.00
- 1 June 2024Via a bridge to your own wallet on Ethereum, worth €1,500.00: not a disposal
- 1 February 2025Sold the 10 SOL on Ethereum for €2,000.00
- Proceeds
- €2,000.00
- Cost basis 10 SOL from 10 January 2024
- − €1,000.00
- Gain after 388 days since the purchase, tax-free
- +€1,000.00
Sale on 1 February 2025
The bridge didn't interrupt the one-year period: it has been running since the purchase, so the gain of €1,000.00 is tax-free and doesn't count toward the exemption limit either.
Anyone who reads the bridge as a sale calculates differently: on 1 June 2024, €500.00 of gain would have been taxable, and the one-year period would have started again. The sale 245 days later would then be taxable too.
Worked out by TaxMaxi's tax engine, on the same principles as for your wallet.
The legal basis
No law and no letter says outright whether a bridge costs tax: neither § 23 EStG on private sales nor the finance ministry's letter of 6 March 2025 mentions bridges. TaxMaxi calculates them by the principles the letter sets for swaps and for transfers between your own wallets.
The letter is divided into numbered paragraphs (Randnummern). Each principle below says what it rests on; a click opens the letter at that spot.
-
1
Over a bridge to your own wallet
If you send a token over a bridge to your own wallet on another chain and it arrives there as the same token, backed 1:1, that's not a disposal: it keeps its acquisition date and cost basis, just in a wallet TaxMaxi can't see, and the report says so. Whether a bridge is a disposal instead is disputed: the DeFi guide of CoinTracking sees every bridge as a disposal with a new acquisition, which realizes the gain since the purchase and restarts the holding period. The finance ministry's letter says nothing about bridges.
-
2
Between your own wallets on two chains
If a token leaves one of your wallets and arrives in another of your wallets in a separate transaction, over a bridge to another chain or through an exchange, that's one single move and not a disposal: it keeps its acquisition date and cost basis, and its holding period keeps running. A token the bridge backs 1:1 on the other chain is the same token. The number the bridge gives the transfer, which both chains show, links the two ends with certainty. If it's missing, TaxMaxi offers a send and an arrival of the same coin, close in time, with the arrival smaller by at most the route's fee, as a pair for you to confirm. What the bridge keeps along the way is part of what was moved.
The other reading
Not everyone reads a bridge this way. The DeFi guide by CoinTracking (as of 17 April 2026) says of bridges between chains, in our translation: "The tax administration treats this as a disposal plus a new acquisition."
On that reading every bridge would be a sale: the gain since the purchase would be realized for tax, and the one-year period would start again for the token on the new chain. TaxMaxi reads a bridge to your own wallet differently, because nothing goes to anyone else. Until a court or the ministry settles the question, a tax advisor can tell you which reading fits your case.
Common questions
Is a USDT transfer through USDT0 taxable?
Not if it goes to your own wallet: the USDT only changes chain, and its purchase date and cost basis go with it.
Is USDT0 a different token from USDT?
Not for TaxMaxi. USDT0 only issues as much on the other chain as is locked on Ethereum, and changes it back there 1:1. It's the same USDT, on a different chain.
What about the fees?
What USDT0 keeps of the USDT is part of what you transferred. You pay LayerZero's fee in ETH or SOL, and that ETH or SOL counts as disposed of.
Does the one-year holding period start again after a bridge?
Not on TaxMaxi's reading. Anyone who reads every bridge as a sale has the period start again. The finance ministry's letter of 6 March 2025 says nothing about bridges.
More bridges
This page explains how TaxMaxi calculates. It is not tax advice and does not replace a tax advisor.