Tether – the company behind the world’s largest stablecoin – has now launched its premier Tether token (USDT) across Polygon. This will bring Tether’s utility to thousands of dapps running on the blockchain.
Polygon is a layer 2 scaling solution for the Ethereum network. It allows for speedier transactions with lower fees, using technologies like optimistic rollups and ZK rollups.
Over 19,000 dapps run on the network – up from 3000 in October – created by more than 8000 developer teams.
Tether issues a variety of tokens backed by assets with a relatively “stable” value, such as US treasury bills and commercial paper. These assets are used to keep its tokens pegged to a relatively stable value.
Tether’s USDT tokens are value pegged to one dollar each. Meanwhile, Tether’s recently announced MXNT is pegged to the Mexican peso.
Such stable assets are helpful for executing fast trades in the crypto market, and for alleviating risks caused by market volatility in the defi ecosystem.
With the Polygon launch, USDT is now available on 11 blockchains. These include Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, Algorand, Tron, Omni, EOS, Liquid Network, Kusama, and Bitcoin Cash’s Standard Ledger Protocol.
“We’re excited to launch USD₮ on Polygon, offering its community access to the most liquid, stable, and trusted stablecoin in the digital token space,” said Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Tether.
USDT recently experienced some instability following the stablecoin panic in the wake of TerraUSD’s (UST’s) collapse. UST was an algorithmic stablecoin, backed by an unstable cryptocurrency rather than direct dollars.
However, Tether’s peg quickly recovered, and the company reassured holders that reserves were fully backed in a report last week.