TLDR
- Tether is stopping the minting of USDT on Algorand and EOS blockchains.
- Redemptions will continue for 12 months on these chains.
- The decision is based on low usage and community interest.
- USDT on Algorand and EOS represents only about 0.1% of total USDT supply.
- Tether is focusing on chains with higher usage and community interest.
Tether, the company behind the world’s largest stablecoin, USDT, announced on Monday that it will stop minting new tokens on the Algorand and EOS blockchains.
This decision, effective immediately, is part of Tether’s strategy to focus on blockchains with higher usage and community interest.
USDT, a stablecoin designed to maintain a 1:1 peg with the US dollar, is currently available on 16 different blockchains. However, the vast majority of USDT tokens are on just two chains: Tron and Ethereum.
According to Tether’s transparency report, there’s about $59 billion on Tron and $52 billion on Ethereum, out of a total supply of around $113 billion.
In contrast, the USDT supply on Algorand and EOS is much smaller. Algorand hosts about $85 million worth of USDT, while EOS has approximately $17 million. Together, these amounts represent less than 0.1% of the total USDT in circulation.
Tether explained in a blog post that this move is part of a “strategic transition to prioritize community-driven blockchain support.”
The company stated that it aims to “strike a balance between maintainability, usage and community interest” when deciding which blockchains to support.
While new USDT tokens will no longer be minted on Algorand and EOS, Tether has committed to supporting redemptions on these chains for the next 12 months. This means that users holding USDT on these blockchains will still be able to redeem their tokens during this period. Tether mentioned that they may evaluate and announce further changes around the end of this redemption period.
This isn’t the first time Tether has stopped supporting certain blockchains. In August 2023, the company discontinued minting USDT on three other chains: Kusama, Bitcoin Cash’s Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP), and the Omni Layer Protocol. The Omni Layer Protocol on Bitcoin was where the first Tether tokens were issued back in October 2014.
While Tether is reducing its presence on some blockchains, it’s expanding on others. In April 2024, the company launched USDT on The Open Network (TON), which is associated with the messaging app Telegram. Since then, about $500 million worth of USDT has been minted on TON, representing about 0.44% of the total supply.
