Tether launches on proof-of-stake blockchain Solana

United States dollar-backed stablecoin Tether (USDT) has just launched on proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain Solana.

According to an announcement shared with Modern Consensus on March 11, world’s top stablecoin Tether is now live on Solana’s proof-of-stake blockchain. As a result, the stablecoin’s users will now reportedly be able to exchange it at a speed of 50,000 transactions per second with a fee of about $0.00001 per transaction.

“This integration with Solana will help to support a dazzling array of projects, including those in DeFi [or decentralized finance], Web3 and blockchain gaming,” said Tether’s chief technology officer, Paolo Ardoino. “We look forward to serving the growing ecosystem of projects being developed on Solana as Tether cements its pivotal role in the digital token ecosystem.”

Tether is available on a long list of networks including Algorand, Bitcoin Cash’s Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP), Ethereum, EOS, Liquid Network, Omni and Tron. 

Tether is currently the fourth-largest cryptocurrency, with a market capitalization of $37.5 billion.

In February, the company dodged a major bullet by settling a lawsuit by New York’s attorney general accusing it and its sister company, cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, of fraud and violating New York’s securities laws for $18.5 million—a number that could have been far worse. The case grew out of a $750 million loan Tether gave Bitfinex after it was robbed of $880 million.

When announcing that the stablecoin would come to the firm’s blockchain in September, Solana head of marketing Austin Virts wrote:

“Tether and USDt are critical pieces of infrastructure for any successful blockchain project and have been one of the most important elements for cross-platform settlement. This strategic initiative is a significant step for Solana and will be instrumental in advancing the network.”

In October 2020, also USD Coin (USDC)—the stablecoin jointly created by fintech firm Circle and U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase—launched on the Solana blockchain. This is the same stablecoin that saw adoption by payments behemoth Visa at the end of last year.

Solana’s team is working hard to make its platform’s potential usefulness as great as possible. Also in October 2020, the firm launched a trustless bridge connecting the platform with Ethereum’s blockchain, allowing for the transfer of Ether (ETH) and Ethereum’s ERC-20 tokens between blockchains.

While stablecoins such as Tether are seeing their market cap and adoption grow rapidly amid the ongoing crypto asset bull market, their future in their current form is somewhat uncertain. In July 2020, a powerful international regulatory body, the Financial Action Task Force, called for a clampdown on stablecoins since they have a “propensity for mass adoption makes them more vulnerable to be used by criminals and terrorists.”