Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin USDT, announced on Thursday that it will discontinue support for its flagship stablecoin on three blockchains, Kusama, Bitcoin Cash SLP (Simple Ledger Protocol), and Omni Layer.
See related article: Tether says USDT excess reserves reached US$3.3 billion in Q2
Fast facts
- Tether said it stopped minting new USDT on these chains starting Aug. 17 but will continue redemptions for USDT-Omni, USDT-Kusama, and USDT-BCH-SLP for at least the next 12 months.
- Users can also swap USDT-Omni, USDT-Kusama, and USDT-BCH-SLP for other chains via platforms that support these assets, such as Bitfinex, Tether’s sister cryptocurrency exchange under the iFinex umbrella.
- Omni, a software layer built on top of Bitcoin, has lacked popular tokens, causing many exchanges to favor alternative layers, Tether said in a statement on Thursday.
- Tether added that it is committed to leveraging Bitcoin technology by contributing to the development of RGB, a smart contracts protocol for the Bitcoin blockchain.
- “Once USDT on RGB goes live, the world will witness USDT on another super-powerful and scalable Bitcoin layer,” Tether said.
- With a market capitalization of US$82.84 billion, USDT is recognized as the world’s largest stablecoin. It has been trading off its dollar peg on secondary markets for the majority of Friday amid heightened market volatility, according to CoinMarketCap data.
- Tether has consistently asserted that users can always redeem one USDT token for one dollar, regardless of the stablecoin’s price in public markets.
See related article: Is Tether unmoored — or just dandy?