Key takeaways:
- Tether has announced the launch of USDT on Kusama, the leading stablecoin’s tenth supported blockchain
- USDT is the largest dollar-pegged stablecoin in the marketplace, accounting for $83 billion of the roughly $180 billion total stablecoin supply
- The launch on Kusama indicates that USDT on Polkadot is likely coming soon
USDT’s expansion to Kusama suggests the Polkadot launch is imminent
Tether, the operator of the most liquid and widely-used stablecoin USDT, has announced the launch of its dollar-pegged digital currency on Kusama, a “canary network” of Polkadot. As of Wednesday, USDT is available on ten different blockchain platforms, including Ethereum, TRON, Algorand, and EOS, to name a few.
More specifically, USDT initially launched on Kusama’s first parachain, Statemine, a public chain that can host both fungible and non-fungible tokens and allows low-cost transfers of KSM and DOT. The availability of USDT in the Kusama ecosystem will allow developers of decentralized applications easier access to liquidity, which means a likely increase in the user numbers as well.
Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino commented on USDT’s expansion to the Kusama network in a statement:
“We’re excited to launch USD₮ on Kusama, offering its community access to the most liquid, stable, and trusted stablecoin in the digital token space. For those who believe in the importance of decentralized, permissionless ecosystems, Kusama is a perfect representation of that ethos.”
Although not confirmed, the launch of USDT on the canary network means that the stablecoin could rollout on Kusama’s parent network in the near future. The access to USDT would allow Polkadot developers to take full advantage of the parachain capabilities of the network that went live at the tail end of 2022. Head of public affairs at Parity Technologies commented on the likelihood of USDT launching on Polkadot:
“Tether’s deployment on Kusama is a clear indication that there is interest in having it available to builders in the Polkadot ecosystem alongside the Polkadot-native options that are launching as well.”
The stablecoin sector has seen tremendous growth over the past two years. According to data from The Block, the total stablecoin supply has increased from $5.9B in January 2020, to over $180 billion in April 2022. With $82 billion, USDT accounts for the biggest share of the total supply, followed by USDC ($50 billion) and UST ($17 billion).
