Tether Funds Chain War with Rivals Plasma and Stable

Tether, the largest stablecoin issuer in the world, has been facing a problem. The company pays around $2.9 billion annually in fees to blockchains it doesn't control, mainly Ethereum and Tron. To mitigate this issue, Tether decided to back two competing chains: Plasma and Stable.

Plasma is a DeFi-focused chain that raised $373 million in an oversubscribed sale and launched in September. It's designed as a general-purpose chain with its own token, XPL, which performs traditional native-token jobs. The paymaster contract absorbs gas costs, making USDT transfers free for users.

Stable, on the other hand, is an enterprise-focused chain that launched in December with $2 billion in pre-deposits. It's designed as a stripped-down payments rail where USDT itself serves as the fee token, and simple transfers are exempt by protocol rule.

The real target of this strategy isn't Plasma or Stable, but Tron, which still holds around 45% of all USDT and earns fees on the world's largest remittance flows. By funding both chains, Tether aims to repatriate fees, own the rail, and design the user experience around the dollar.