Tether Abandons Blockchain Plans Amid Market Saturation

Tether Holdings, the issuer of the widely-held stablecoin USDT, has decided to abandon plans to launch its own blockchain. Instead, it will continue to rely on existing chains like Ethereum and TRON.

The decision comes as the market becomes increasingly saturated with new blockchains, according to Paolo Ardoino, Tether's CEO. 'We're tech whizzes, but blockchains will be a dime a dozen soon,' he quipped in an interview with Bloomberg News.

Ardoino cited supply and demand principles as the reason for this decision. With several top-notch blockchains already existing, there is little need for another one. USDT has a market cap of $117 billion and is a key player in global crypto trading and remittances. Despite having deep pockets to fund a new blockchain, Tether chose not to pursue it.

The decision reflects the current state of the industry, where a small number of blockchains dominate the space. According to DefiLlama, the top five chains control about 86% of total locked assets across 306 chains. Ethereum leads with $87.7 billion in TVL out of $133.2 billion across all chains.