Tether pauses USDT freeze across five blockchains

Stablecoin issuer Tether has announced that it will halt its previous plans to freeze USDT on five blockchains. According to the stablecoin firm, the plan to freeze USDT smart contracts on the five chains will be paused, noting that it will only remain transferable on these chains but can no longer be issued or redeemed on them.

The revised plan is expected to affect chains like Omni Layer, Algorand, EOS, Bitcoin Cash SLP, Kusama, Tether said. The company said the development was born out of the feedback that it received from members of these ecosystems. “Following the feedback from the communities of these discontinued blockchains, Tether has revised this approach and will not freeze the smart contracts on these networks.”

Tether suspends plan to freeze USDT on five blockchains

According to Tether, while users can still transfer tokens on these blockchains, it will discontinue direct issuance and redemption on these chains. “This means the tokens will no longer be officially supported as other Tether tokens,” the company said. The initial plan was to end support for users on these chains on September 1.

The decision is in line with Tether’s broader strategy to remain focused on expanding support for crypto ecosystems, adding strong developer activity, scalability, and use demand without completely abandoning the chains it has supported for a long time. According to Tether, only a small smart contract-based layer–1 blockchains have been able to successfully achieve large-scale user adoption while offering practical uses, such as Tron and Ethereum.

Tron and Ethereum are the two chains that Tether supports the most. Tron boasts $80 billion, while Ethereum has $72 billion worth of USDT circulating supply. Meanwhile, BNB Chain rounds up the top three, boasting $6.78 billion, according to data from DeFiLlama. Solana and other Ethereum layer-2 chains, Arbitrum and Base, are among the other successful crypto ecosystems with good stablecoin activity, though they use Circle’s USDC stablecoins rather than USDT.

Omni Layer will be the most affected chain

A review of USDT balances across the affected blockchains shows that Omni Layer will be the most affected, considering it holds a net circulation of $82.9 million USDT. Other networks boast smaller participation, with EOS seeing $4.2 million, while Bitcoin Cash SLP and the others boast a little under $1 million worth of USDT. Tether mentioned that the decision to pull its weight from these chains has been in the works for about two years.

In August 2023, the company announced it would no longer issue USDT on Omni Layer, Kusama, and Bitcoin Cash SLP. In June 2024, Tether stopped minting on EOS and Algorand. The total market cap of stablecoins is currently around $285.9 billion, with USDT and USDC leading at $167.4 billion and $71 billion, respectively, according to data from CoinGecko.

Last Month, United States President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law, with many analysts noting that it will help the US dollar’s dominance by promoting stablecoins pegged to the dollar, rivaling other currencies, and reinforcing the dollar’s role as the world’s leading reserve currency. The United States Department of the Treasury expected the stablecoin market to grow to $2 trillion by 2028.

“The entire crypto community, for years, you were mocked and dismissed and counted out, you were counted out as little as a year and a half ago, but this signing is a massive validation … of your hard work and your pioneering spirit,” said Trump.

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