# OFTs The OFT standard is a token standard developed by LayerZero to help facilitate seamless cross-chain liquidity by unifying token standards across different blockchains. Stargate positions itself at the forefront of this by establishing itself as the frontend a majority of the dApps use for their OFT. The technology provided by OFTs help extend Hydra as Stargate locks natively deployed assets like USDT and USDC from Tether and Circle, and use OFTs to facilitate the seamless minting of HydraUSDC and HydraUSDT on the Hydrachain. OFTs are issued in one of two ways: * Burn and mint : OFT transfers that keep the total amount of tokens the same * Lock and mint: Used for tokens that were already minted on a single chain The OFT standard is inherently non-custodial, allowing developers to maintain ownership and control over their token contracts across multiple blockchains. LayerZero cannot take custody of OFTs or alter their security settings. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://stargateprotocol.gitbook.io/stargate/v2-user-docs/whats-new-in-stargate-v2/architecture/ofts.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.