Tether to End Support for Five Outdated Blockchains, Shifting Focus to More Scalable Solutions

Starting September 1, Tether will stop redeeming USDT on five networks — Algorand, Bitcoin Cash SLP, EOS, Kusama, and Omni Layer — and will freeze the remaining tokens.

«Ceasing support for these outdated blockchains will allow us to focus on platforms that offer greater scalability, active developer engagement, and community involvement — all essential elements for driving the next wave of stablecoin adoption,» stated Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino.

According to the announcement, this decision was made following an analysis of protocol usage data, market demand, and feedback from infrastructure partners.

«While these networks played a foundational role in Tether’s early growth, the volume of USDT circulating on them has significantly declined over the past two years,» the company noted.

In August 2023, Tether halted the issuance of the stablecoin within the Kusama, Bitcoin Cash, and Omni ecosystems. In June 2024, the company discontinued the issuance of USDT on EOS and Algorand, leaving users the option to redeem or exchange their coins.

As per Tether’s data, approximately 82.9 million USDT are still circulating on Omni, with the issuer having authorized about 888 million tokens in total. For Kusama, which operates as a canary network within the Polkadot ecosystem, these figures stand at 239,993 and around 3.5 million USDT.

All 841,596 authorized tokens on Algorand are in circulation, while Bitcoin Cash has only 986,524 coins remaining out of nearly 6 million theoretically available.

On EOS, the potential issuance amounted to 82.25 million, with around 4.2 million USDT currently in circulation.

Tron and Ethereum dominate the landscape, with 80.67 billion and 74.3 billion tokens issued, respectively.

Tether confirmed its strategy to expand support for Layer 2 networks, including Bitcoin-based protocols like the Lightning Network, as well as «other new blockchains that provide improved compatibility, speed, and ecosystem growth.»

It’s worth noting that in November 2024, the USDT issuer discontinued support for the euro-pegged stablecoin EURT due to low demand and increased regulatory scrutiny in the EU.