Tether Launches Stablecoin on Tezos to Unlock New DeFi Products

By Andrew Asmakov

Stablecoin operator Tether today announced it is expanding the list of blockchain networks supporting its flagship stablecoin USDT to Tezos, a proof-of-stake (Pos) platform for creating smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps).

With the addition of Tezos, the USDT ecosystem is now available on 12 various networks, including Ethereum (ETH), Tron (TRX), Solana (SOL), Algorand (ALG), and the recently added Polygon (MATIC).

“We’re excited to launch USDT on Tezos, offering its growing and vibrant community access to the most liquid, stable, and trusted stablecoin in the digital token space,” Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Tether, said in a statement. “Tezos is coming fast onto the scene and we believe that this integration will be essential to its long-term growth.”

Tezos is powered by XTZ, the network’s native cryptocurrency created through a process called “baking”. In many aspects, baking is similar to what is called staking on other PoS networks, where holders have an ability to stake (bake) their coins to receive rewards for signing and publishing blocks.

With a market capitalization of close to $1.9 billion, Tezos is currently the 33rd-largest digital currency, according to CoinMarketCap.

Tezos and DeFi

Launched in 2018, Tezos is sometimes referred to as the first “self-amending” blockchain, which leverages its unique on-chain governance mechanism to automatically integrate new features without the need for hard forks—a popular method to deploy new functionality that introduces a different set of rules and requires software upgrades, making previous blocks and transactions incompatible with a new version of the protocol.

These unique features helped Tezos to become a platform of choice for many brands and institutions seeking opportunities in the world of decentralized finance (DeFi).

Tezos’ growing DeFi ecosystem includes yield farming protocol Youves, decentralized exchange and EVM bridge Plenty, and automated market maker Vortex, among others.

One of the advantages of having USDT on Tezos, according to Alessandro De Carli, founder of Papers, the company behind Beacon, the interaction standard for Tezos dApps and wallets, is that "on and off ramps into the Tezos DeFi ecosystem will become more simplified and efficient."

“The launch of USDT on Tezos will undoubtedly unlock new DeFi products and I expect the impact on volume growth of the Tezos DeFi ecosystem to be remarkable,” added De Carli.

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