Tether is launching on the Avalanche blockchain

Tether • May 17, 2021, 10:00AM EDT
The Block

Stablecoin issuer Tether is set to launch its USDT token on Avalanche, making it the ninth blockchain network it operates on.

USDT's launch on the Avalanche network is expected in mid-June, Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino told The Block. Once launched, the stablecoin would work on nine blockchains: Algorand, Avalanche, Bitcoin Cash’s Simple Ledger Protocol, Ethereum, EOS, Liquid Network, Omni, Tron, and Solana.

Ethereum's high gas fees have made USDT more popular on other chains, such as Tron. As The Block reported recently, USDT's supply on Tron surpassed that of Ethereum. It is still the case as of writing. USDT's supply on Tron stands at $31 billion, while on Ethereum, it is at around $27 billion, according to The Block's Data Dashboard.

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Ardoino told The Block that if Ethereum's gas fees remain high on average, this trend may continue.

"Avalanche is surging in popularity," Ardoino told The Block. "It has support for Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), allowing decentralized finance (DeFi) projects to migrate easily to it to enjoy lower fees, while making USDT deployment easy since we already have a battle-tested EVM compatible setup."

When asked if Tether is looking to support more blockchain in the near future, Ardoino said there are no other blockchains in the pipeline for the time being.

About Author

Yogita Khatri is a senior reporter at The Block, covering all things crypto. As one of the earliest team members, Yogita has played a pivotal role in breaking numerous stories, exclusives and scoops. With nearly 3,000 articles under her belt, Yogita holds the records as The Block's most-published and most-read author of all time. Prior to joining The Block, Yogita worked at crypto publication CoinDesk and The Economic Times, where she wrote on personal finance. To contact her, email: [email protected]. For her latest work, follow her on X @Yogita_Khatri5.