- With the launch of the parachains, Tether’s USDT will expand to Polkadot and Kusama.
- USDT will launch on Kusama first, probably a year before USDT comes to Polkadot.
In a press release shared with CNF, Tether Operations Limited (“Tether“), the company behind USDT, the largest stablecoin by market cap, today announced its planned rollout on Polkadot and Kusama. Following Ethereum, Tron, Algorand, Bitcoin Cash’s Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP), EOS, Liquid Network, Omni and Solana, Polkadot and Kusama will be the next blockchains on which Tether will expand its multi-blockchain architecture strategy.
Polkadot itself introduces a scalable multichain network that provides an environment for cross-chain compatibility of multiple applications and protocols. But before USDT launches on this blockchain, the stablecoin will first be ready on Polkadot’s cousin Kusama. Under current plans, Kusama will launch its parachains about a year before the Polkadot mainnet, effectively serving as a value-added testbed for technologies in the Polkadot ecosystem to ensure that the launch of Polkadot’s production environment is as successful and secure as possible.
Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Tether, said of the integration of USDT on Polkadot and Kusama:
We’re excited to launch USDT on Polkadot, offering its growing and vibrant community access to the most liquid, stable and trusted stablecoin in the digital token space. Polkadot is one of the most exciting projects in the digital token ecosystem and we anticipate a ready uptake of the Tether token as it powers Polkadot’s emerging DeFi ecosystem. Polkadot, with its parachain structure, has the ability to grow significantly in the coming years. This growth will be driven by its high level of scalability.
Peter Mauric, Head of Public Affairs at Parity Technologies, which is Polkadot’s first core development team, added:
Teams building decentralized applications in with a multi-chain future in mind are increasingly looking towards established stablecoins that operate across numerous networks to ensure a smooth experience for their users. The launch of USDT on Kusama and Polkadot is a crucial step in achieving that vision, where developers will be able to seamlessly compose trustless applications across chains, networks and communities.
Since the launch of USDT on Kusama and Polkadot is dependent on the launch of the much-anticipated parachains, a release date has not yet been set. As CNF reported, the release is currently in the testnet rollout phase. The parachain functionality was first rolled out for testing on the Rococo parachain testnet. Once these tests are successfully completed, there will be a vote to enable parachains and slot auctions on Kusama via on-chain governance.
