> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.stable.xyz/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Confidential transfer > Confidential transfer mechanism for privacy-preserving USDT transactions with regulatory compliance on Stable. **Confidential Transfer** is a privacy layer on Stable that shields the **amount** of a USDT0 transfer while keeping sender and recipient addresses publicly visible. The shielded amount is readable only by the transacting parties and authorized regulatory auditors, using zero-knowledge (ZK) cryptography to prove validity without revealing the value. The feature is under development; this page describes the target model. ## The problem it solves Standard on-chain transfers are fully transparent; anyone can read the sender, recipient, and amount. For business payments, that transparency is a data-leakage problem: * A retailer paying suppliers on-chain exposes order volumes and wholesale pricing to any observer. * A treasury moving funds between accounts advertises its position sizes. * A payroll run publishes salary data to the entire network. Full opacity (Monero-style) would solve this but breaks compliance: regulators and auditors can't verify the transaction. Selective confidentiality (amounts hidden, parties auditable) is the model Stable targets. ## What stays visible, what doesn't | Field | Visible on-chain | Shielded | | :----------------- | :--------------- | :------- | | Sender address | ✓ | | | Recipient address | ✓ | | | Transfer amount | | ✓ | | Auxiliary metadata | | ✓ | The shielded amount is encrypted. Valid proofs attest that the transfer is balance-consistent (no inflation, no negative amounts) without revealing the value itself. Only the sender, recipient, and authorized regulatory auditors can decrypt the shielded value. ## How it fits the compliance model Two properties make the design auditable: * **Deterministic auditor access.** Regulatory auditors hold keys that decrypt shielded amounts for transactions in their jurisdiction. Business privacy is preserved against random observers; compliance scrutiny is not. * **Standard address transparency.** AML/KYC tooling that operates on address-level flows (sanction checks, source-of-funds analysis) works against the same public address graph as any transparent chain. ## When to use it Confidential Transfer fits any flow where the amount is commercially sensitive but the counterparties are appropriately public: * Supplier and invoice payments where order sizes reveal pricing. * Treasury operations where position sizes reveal strategy. * Payroll where individual salaries shouldn't be indexable by competitors. * Large OTC settlements where price discovery against orderbook tape is a risk. For flows that need address-level privacy as well (e.g. whistleblower donations), Confidential Transfer alone isn't sufficient. Those use cases need additional address-obscuring primitives that Stable doesn't provide. ## Status Confidential Transfer is in development. See [Roadmap](/en/explanation/technical-roadmap) for timing. The mechanism will ship as a dedicated transfer path alongside standard USDT0 transfers; existing applications that don't opt in are unaffected. ## Next recommended Understand the asset model confidential transfers shield. See where confidentiality fits in the end-to-end payment lifecycle. Track when confidential transfer ships.