TRON may be in trouble, as excitement around EthereumEthereum crowds out the competition.
StablecoinStablecoin provider Tether announced today a "chain swap" for $1 billion USDT dollar-pegged tokenstokens from the TRON TRC20 token standard onto the Ethereum blockchain at the request of an undisclosed cryptocurrencycryptocurrency exchange.
In few hours Tether will coordinate with a 3rd party to perform two chain swaps (conversion from Tron to ERC20 protocol) for 1B USDt. Tether total supply will not change during this process.
While not officially confirmed by Tether, clues on the blockchain point towards Binance as the exchange in question, which sent $600 million back to the Tether Treasury on the TRON blockchainblockchain. The swap comes as the booming DeFiDeFi market pushes Ethereum and many ERC20 tokens higher, pulling volume away from TRON as cryptocrypto traders hunt for moonshots and yield on the world’s second-largest blockchain network.
🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 600,000,000 #USDT (602,417,916 USD) transferred from #Binance to Tether Treasury
Tether’s token swap will reduce the supply of TRON-based TRC20 Tether tokens from $4.3 billion to $3.3 billion, while increasing Ethereum’s ERC20-based Tether supply to $8.5 billion. In the announcement, Tether stated that the overall supply of USDT, currently more than $12 billion, will remain unchanged from the swap.
Tether has minted billions of additional USDT tokens during the recent crypto run-up, increasing the supply from $10 billion on June 22 to more than $12.6 billion today, a more than 25% increase in just two months. Tether has been the single largest source of congestion on the Ethereum blockchain during that time, accounting for 14% of all transactions.
The OMG Network (formerly Omise GO) recently launched Tether transactions as an Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution to move some of that traffic off of the main Ethereum blockchain in an effort to reduce transaction fees, but it’s unclear how the new influx of $1 billion Tethers will affect that plan.
A measure of relief for astronomical Ethereum gas fees may finally be at hand.
Tether announced today the launch of USDT stablecoin transfers on the OMG Network, one of the first viable Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solutions. The launch will bring increased speeds and reduce transaction costs for Tether transfers, currently the number one source of transactions on the Ethereum network.
If meaningful volume from Tether transfers shifts to the OMG network, it could generate a much needed reduction i...
TRON and its founder, Justin Sun, have been at the center of ongoing controversy over the fork of the popular Steemit crypto blogging platform, recently culminating in a lawsuit against centralized exchange Bitfinex seeking approximately $16 million.
Given the evidence pointing to Binance as the initiator of the billion-dollar chain swap, the move may come simply as the result of lower than expected TRON-related Tether trading on the world’s largest exchange my volume. (Representatives for Binance and Tether did not immediately respond to Decrypt's request for comment.)
But the move could also signal the beginning of a widening disconnect between Ethereum and its competitors, as rapid DeFi development drives accelerating adoption.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.
Daily Debrief Newsletter
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
Public Keys is a weekly roundup from Decrypt that tracks the key publicly traded crypto companies. This week: Reading tea leaves during Circle and eToro quiet periods, Bitcoin miners selling a lot of Bitcoin, and Semler Scientific offering securities to raise cash to buy Bitcoin to secure a loan to pay the DOJ.
It’s oh so quiet
There was a jolt of excitement this week when USDC stablecoin issuer Circle told Decrypt the company is in a mandatory quiet period on account of having filed their S-1 a...
Kraken has reorganized its staff across multiple departments in recent months as part of a strategic move before its planned initial public offering next year.
A Kraken spokesperson told Decrypt that the company continuously evaluates its workforce to ensure it aligns with its strategic priorities.
“We’re approaching this with discipline and intention, making the difficult decision to eliminate certain roles and consolidate teams where redundancies exist, while continuing to hire in key areas of...
eXch crypto exchange will shut down operations on May 1 following links to the $1.4 billion Bybit hack and an "active transatlantic operation," the team said Thursday.
eXch is a privacy-focused crypto exchange known for operating without typical KYC, or know-your-customer) requirementsThe closure comes amid mounting allegations that eXch was complicit in the $1.4 billion Bybit hack in February, allegedly facilitating money laundered by North Korea's Lazarus hacker ring.
The exchange cited an "ac...
