Tether has announced it will discontinue support for its USDT stablecoin on five legacy blockchains: Omni Layer, Bitcoin Cash Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP), Algorand, Kusama, and EOS. Our recent blog post explains this decision in detail. Deepening engagement through tech It is part of a larger strategic infrastructure review to move toward platforms with increased scalability potential and improved community engagement.
The company plans to end USDT redemptions on these blockchains before September 1. After this date, Tether will blacklist and freeze any outstanding USDT tokens on those impacted exchanges.
In testimony to congress, Tether accepted that these platforms contributed to the company’s initial success. USDT volume on each of these blockchains has dropped precipitously over the last two years, leading to this start of the changing of the guard.
As the digital asset ecosystem evolves, Tether remains committed to adapting alongside it. Sunsetting support for these legacy chains allows us to focus on platforms that offer greater scalability, developer activity, and community engagement — all key components for driving the next wave of stablecoin adoption. - Paolo Ardoino, Tether's CEO
This decision is another sign of Tether’s Shot-For-The-Moon approach. As such, they plan to be the world’s largest Bitcoin miner by year’s end. The company says it’s sunsetting USDT support on the networks above so it can focus its efforts on fewer blockchains.
Of all the blockchains impacted, Omni Layer was one of the first, and original, platforms to support USDT. Bitcoin Cash Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP) is another blockchain on Tether’s list that is dropping support for USDT. Algorand, Kusama, and EOS are similarly affected by Tether’s move to end support.
