Tether CEO comments on the popularity of TRON to issue USDT

What’s new? Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has commented on another 1 billion USDT stablecoins issue on the TRON blockchain. He clarified that this is an authorized but unissued transaction, meaning that this amount will be used as a reserve for next-period issuance requests and cross-chain swaps. He later wrote in his X that the popularity of blockchain is due to its cheap and fast transactions. However, he did not directly mention TRON in the post, tentatively labeling it “blockchain Y.”

Source: Twitter.com

Source: Twitter.com

What else is known? According to Ardoino, while the rest of the crypto industry spent eight years executing a plan to add a meaningful scalable layer on top of “blockchain Z” (i.e. rollups) and prioritized meme tokens and DeFi, “blockchain Y” was the only cheap/fast payment medium for people in emerging markets “could not afford to pay $5 for gas fees.”

As a result, tens of thousands of payment service providers (PSPs) spent significant resources to integrate “blockchain Y,” the Tether CEO noted. This “first mover advantage” is now ingrained in many companies.

Ardoino also noted that today there are many competing Layer 2 (L2) solutions based on “blockchain Z,” but a payment company may be confused about which one to use. He emphasized that having multiple options is good, but timing is key.

In addition, Ardoino stated that Tether does not favor one blockchain over another. He emphasized that Users decide which is more suitable based on support, speed, and cost.

50,75% of the total USDT issued is circulating on the TRON blockchain, with another over 42 on the Ethereum network. The rest of the volume is spread across BCS, Solana, Arbitrum, Omni, Avalanche, Polygon, Optimism, Kava, and other blockchains. That said, last August, Tether stopped issuing USDT on Omni and some other networks due to low demand for the asset.

Late last year, analysts pointed to the growing popularity of the TRON blockchain among terrorists. The UN later claimed that USDT was one of Southeast Asia’s most popular money laundering tools. In response, Tether offered the organization’s cooperation in developing measures to combat financial crimes.