Stablecoin giant Tether continues to transform its flagship US dollar-pegged stablecoin USDT by stopping issuing new USDT on more blockchains.
Tether will stop issuing USDT on the EOS and Algorand blockchains starting June 24, the company officially announced on its blog on Monday.
After the shutdown, Tether will continue redeeming USDT from EOS and Algorand “as usual” over the next 12 months. “Additional changes may be evaluated and announced around that time,” the announcement reads.
The transition is expected to occur with minimal disruption.
According to Tether, ceasing EOS and Algorand-based USDT mining coincides with the company starting to maintain balance in the Tether (USDT) ecosystem.
“We carefully evaluate the security architecture of our network to ensure the safety, usability, and sustainability of the blockchain we choose,” Tether said, adding that Tether’s ultimate goal is to foster innovation while also “making the most sense to improve security and efficiency.” “Allocate resources where you can,” he added. The announcement is as follows:
“We assure the community that this transition will be executed with care and with minimal disruption. Our top priority is to provide a seamless user experience, and we are committed to facilitating a hassle-free transition.”
EOS and Algorand account for less than 0.1% of total USDT supply.
EOS and Algorand are just two of the 17 blockchains that enable Tether transactions across multiple blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Tron, Solana, Open Network (TON), and others.
According to data from Tether Transparency, the total amount of EOS-based Tether in circulation as of June 22 was $75.5 million, which is only about 0.06% of the total USDT in circulation, or about $113 billion.
Algorand-based Ethereum (ETH) accounts for a much smaller portion of total USDT circulation. USDT supply is approximately $17 million, or approximately 0.01% of the total USDT circulating supply.
As previously reported, Tether launched USDT on the Algorand blockchain in 2020, a few months after launching USDT on the EOS blockchain in May 2019.
Related: Binance integrates USDT into TON and begins trading.
EOS and Algorand are not the only blockchains that Tether has decided to abandon in favor of issuing new USDT.
The first Tether USDT was issued on the Bitcoin blockchain.
In August 2023, Tether discontinued USDT mining on three blockchains, including Kusama, Bitcoin Cash Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP), and Omni Layer Protocol, the original USDT blockchain.
The first Tether token was issued on the Bitcoin blockchain through Omni in October 2014.
Tether has been actively integrating new blockchain networks such as TON while abandoning EOS and Algorand. According to Tether Transparency, Tether has issued approximately $500 million worth of stablecoins based on TON since launching TON-based USDT in April 2024. This is 0.44% of the total circulating supply.
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