Tether Launches Plasma and Stable Chains to Reclaim USDT Fees
Tether is rolling out a dual-chain strategy—Plasma and Stable—to capture billions in transaction and payment fees currently accruing to Ethereum and Tron networks. With USDT’s market cap at $170 billion and annual volumes surpassing PayPal and Visa combined, Tether earns only 3–4% yield on reserves while forgoing vital DeFi and on-chain payments revenue. Plasma ($XPL), backed by Bitfinex and Peter Thiel, targets retail users with Bitcoin-secured, EVM-compatible infrastructure, offering zero gas fees via paymaster subsidies and products like Plasma One neo bank (10% savings yield, 4% cashback debit card). Stable is a B2B USDT-only chain focusing on enterprise payment settlements, integrating partners like PayPal’s PYUSD without issuing new tokens. Interoperability allows $XPL to incentivize settlement on Stable, aligning both chains to fortify USDT’s payment dominance. While regulatory hurdles and incumbent competition remain, Tether’s move signals its ambition to evolve from stablecoin issuer to global payments powerhouse, potentially enhancing DeFi yields and boosting the XPL token’s value.
Bullish
Tether’s deployment of Plasma and Stable chains enhances its control over USDT’s high-volume transactions and fee revenue, potentially boosting DeFi integration and the XPL token’s value. By reducing reliance on Ethereum and Tron for gas fees and capturing payment settlement revenue, Tether strengthens USDT’s utility and positions itself as a global payments infrastructure provider. Historically, infrastructure launches (e.g., Binance Smart Chain) drove token adoption and market confidence. In the short term, traders may speculate on XPL listings and yield products; in the long term, USDT’s deeper integration could stabilize its market dominance. Overall, this strategy is likely to have a bullish impact on Tether-related assets.