The popular and sometimes controversial stablecoin tether (USDT) is to launch on a fifth blockchain.
Announced by the (mostly) U.S. dollar-backed token’s issuer on its website, the news means traders will have a USD stablecoin option on omni, ethereum, tron, EOS and, soon, algorand.
“Extending Tether into the Algorand ecosystem is a fantastic
opportunity for us to further contribute to blockchain interoperability
and collaboration. … We are very excited about the potential this
enables for other projects in the decentralised ecosystem and we eagerly
await working closely with many of them in the future,” said Tether CTO
Paolo Ardoino.
Tether is widely used by traders to move money in and out of
cryptocurrencies like bitcoin without needing to exchange back into
dollars with each trade. Crypto exchanges also use the token to transfer
funds between each other to avoid having to move lots of bucks through
not always cooperative banks.
Despite its widespread use in the crypto markets, the stablecoin has had its issues – including accidentally minting $5 billion USDT during a chain swap process last weekend.
Long a concern to users and regulators, Tether has never released a
full accounting audit to prove its coin is backed by USD, as it claimed
for years. Its lawyer recently acknowledged that, in fact, USDT was only about 74 percent backed by fiat equivalents as of April 30.
Tether’s relationship with its sister firm, crypto exchange Bitfinex, has also come under the spotlight, with claims the token has been used to prop up the price of bitcoin.
New York’s Attorney General’s office has further alleged that Bitfinex lost $850 million and subsequently used funds from Tether to secretly cover the shortfall, and said that Bitfinex had operated in the state without a license.
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