Tether Shuts Down Proprietary Blockchain Hopes

Tether has rejected claims it's planning to build its own blockchain for USDT. In an August 15 statement, Paolo Ardoino, Tether CEO, said the company is not building a proprietary blockchain and has no plans to launch one.

The denial comes after CoinMarketCap published research grouping Tether with Stripe and Circle in a stablecoin-focused payment network push worth over $1 billion. This analysis suggested companies in this category had collectively raised more than $1 billion for projects designed to move digital dollars efficiently.

Tether has invested in Plasma, a blockchain project focused on retail activity, and Stable, which targets institutional users and uses USDT for network fees. However, Ardoino clarified that these investments do not signal a proprietary blockchain strategy. 'Tether is NOT building any blockchain nor has plan to build one,' he wrote.

This approach keeps USDT distributed across networks Tether does not control, with Tron (TRX) and Ethereum (ETH) carrying most of the token's supply. CoinMarketCap estimated that USDT users pay about $2.9 billion annually in fees to outside blockchains, revenue Tether could potentially capture with its own network.