Tether Launches USDT Stablecoin on Tezos Blockchain

Tether (USDT), the leading stablecoin with a market cap of more than $70 billion is set to launch its USDT token on the Tezos blockchain, the company announced today.

Tether to Launch on Tezos Blockchain

In an announcement made today, Tether Operations Limited, the company behind the industry-leading USDT stablecoin said that its flagship digital asset is poised to go live on the Tezos blockchain.

The announcement was unveiled during the Money 20/20 event in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The conference witnessed participation from top professionals and companies in the “global monetary system” to discuss key trends, innovations, and the current state of the fintech industry.

The company said the total number of blockchains its USDT stablecoin supports now stands at 12. It’s worthy of note that just a few weeks back Tether announced the launch of USDT on the Polygon network.

The other blockchains on which USDT is already available are Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, Polygon, Algorand, Tron, Omni, EOS, Liquid Network, Kusama, and Bitcoin Cash’s Standard Ledger Protocol.

Commenting, Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Tether, said:

“We’re excited to launch USDT on Tezos, offering its growing and vibrant community access to the most liquid, stable, and trusted stablecoin in the digital token space.”

The launch of USDT on Tezos is a major milestone for the latter as it signals the entry of one of the most liquid digital assets into its ecosystem. USDT’s launch on Tezos will enable all protocols building atop its blockchain to leverage the stablecoin for staking, yield farming, lending, and other purposes.

At the moment, the total value locked (TVL) of digital assets in the Tezos-based DeFi applications is barely above $36 million. It is expected that USDT’s entry into the ecosystem will provide a much-required shot in the arm to the Tezos DeFi space and help with increasing its TVL.

Alessandro de Carli, the founder of Papers, a company specializing in developing blockchain-based mobile-first applications, said:

“The launch of USDT on Tezos will undoubtedly unlock new DeFi products and I expect the impact on volume growth of the Tezos DeFi ecosystem to be remarkable.”

The announcement’s impact was also reflected in XTZ’s price earlier today. Tezos’ native coin, XTZ surged more than 8 percent after Tether’s plans to launch USDT on Tezos went public.

Although USDT is available on a total of 12 blockchains, its usage is highest on the Ethereum and Tron blockchains.

Speculations Still Rife About Tether’s USDT Reserves

Although USDT is still the top stablecoin by reported market cap, its valuation took a major hit after the collapse of Luna’s UST stablecoin. A significant amount of USDT was redeemed shortly after UST’s demised over concerns surrounding its reserves and collateral.

However, the firm has repeatedly said that all its USDT tokens are backed 1:1 with USD. In recent news, crypto.news reported that the stablecoin issuer has some of its reserves at a Bahamas-based bank.