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Tether to Stop Minting Stablecoin USDT on Algorand and EOS

The circulating supply of the dollar-linked stablecoin on the two blockchains represents only about 0.1% of the total USDT supply.

Updated Jun 24, 2024, 2:22 p.m. Published Jun 24, 2024, 2:20 p.m.
Empty theater (Creative Commons)
Empty theater (Creative Commons)

Tether, issuer of the world's largest stablecoin, said that it will stop minting the dollar-linked USDT token on the Algorand and EOS blockchains as part of a "strategic transition to prioritize community-driven blockchain support."

The project aims to "strike a balance between maintainability, usage and community interest," Tether said Monday in a blog post.

New USDT will cease to be minted on Algorand and EOS starting on Monday, though Tether will continue redeeming the stablecoin on the two chains for the next 12 months.

According to Tether's website, there's roughly $113 billion of USDT currently in circulation, distributed across 16 different blockchains. The vast majority of USDT, however, sits on just two chains – roughly $59 billion on Tron and $52 billion on Ethereum.

On Algorand, there's just $85 million of USDT, or only 0.08% of the total supply; on EOS, just $17 million, or 0.015% of total supply.

Bradley Keoun

Bradley Keoun is CoinDesk's managing editor of tech & protocols, where he oversees a team of reporters covering blockchain technology, and previously ran the global crypto markets team. A two-time Loeb Awards finalist, he previously was chief global finance and economic correspondent for TheStreet and before that worked as an editor and reporter for Bloomberg News in New York and Mexico City, reporting on Wall Street, emerging markets and the energy industry. He started out as a police-beat reporter for the Gainesville Sun in Florida and later worked as a general-assignment reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Originally from Fort Wayne, Indiana, he double-majored in electrical engineering and classical studies as an undergraduate at Duke University and later obtained a master's in journalism from the University of Florida. He is currently based in Austin, Texas, and in his spare time plays guitar, sings in a choir and hikes in the Texas Hill Country. He owns less than $1,000 each of several cryptocurrencies.

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