USDT goes live on NEAR Protocol, making it the 14th blockchain network to support Tether

NEAR protocol takes its DeFi dream a step ahead by hosting Tether. The platform aims for mass adoption of Web3

By Shashank Bhardwaj

Image: Shutterstock

Stablecoin issuer Tether Operations Limited announced on Monday that the stablecoin Tether (USDT) is now supported by the NEAR blockchain network. NEAR is now the 14th blockchain network to host the most popular stablecoin. Tether stated in an official announcement,

"Tether Operations Limited (“Tether”), the company operating the blockchain-enabled platform tether.to that powers the first and most widely used stablecoin, has launched Tether tokens pegged to the U.S. dollar (“USD₮”) on the NEAR Network."

Tether's integration into the NEAR blockchain is a significant step forward in the company's commitment to expanding its presence in decentralised finance (DeFi) ecosystems. According to the protocol's official Twitter page, it is now home to over 700 projects. The Aurora Network and the Octopus Network are two of these projects. As of July 2022, the NEAR network's daily transaction volumes ranged from 300,000 to 400,000. Talking about Tether's availability on NEAR, Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Tether, said,

"We’re excited to launch USD₮ on NEAR, offering its community access to the first, most stable, and trusted stablecoin in the digital token space…The NEAR ecosystem has witnessed historic growth this year, and we believe Tether will be essential in helping it continue to thrive."

With this integration, USDT will be available on 14 different blockchain networks. According to the official press release, in addition to NEAR, these networks include 'Algorand, Avalanche, Bitcoin Cash’s Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP), Ethereum, EOS, Kusama, Liquid Network, Omni, Polygon, Tezos, Tron, Solana and Statemine.' This will make it easier to transfer liquidity between networks that support Tether.

Marieke Flament, CEO of NEAR Foundation, said in a public statement,

"We champion initiatives that can bring greater stability to the DeFi ecosystem and help us advance the mass adoption of Web3. We look forward to seeing what Tether will achieve with the launch of USD₮ on NEAR Network and the vital role it will play in shaping the future of finance and the digital economy."

Today the total value of stablecoins in the crypto market is $153 billion. According to Tether's Transparency page, the total market capitalization of USDT in circulation is currently around $67.7 billion. This makes USDT the largest stablecoin in terms of market capitalization. Tether has the third largest market capitalization among over 12,900 cryptos in circulation today. It has risen 1.1 percent in the last 30 days. Tether's market capitalisation represents 6.043 per cent of the entire $1.12 trillion crypto economy. USDT has seen $49.10 billion in global trade volume over the last 24 hours. This indicates that it has outpaced even Bitcoin's (BTC) 24-hour global trade volume.

Shashank is the founder at yMedia. He ventured into crypto in 2013 and is an ETH maximalist. Twitter: @bhardwajshash

Crypto wallet users are warned as scammers might get active during the potential Ethereum hard fork