Tether CEO denies rumors of Tether building a blockchain

After hearing Tether Chain rumors, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said that Tether has no plans to build an official blockchain ‘at this time’.

In his X post on November 4, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino denied rumors that an official Tether (USDT) blockchain was in the works. He explained that Tether is currently focused on partnering with other companies and communities rather than “trying to centralize everything.”

“Again, I heard a few rumors about the Tether Chain. Ardoino said that Tether is currently planning to create an official blockchain.

He noted that Tether supports the integration of various independent layer 2 networks to support the gas fees required for USDT.

Ardoino also hinted at a new product launch that was expected to be planned around US Election day, but Tether decided to push that back seven days so the news wouldn’t be drowned out by “election noise.”

One of the main reasons for which Tether won't launch a chain anytime soon is that neutrality is very important.

Unstoppable TogETHER, our motto, underlines our interest to partner up with other companies and communities rather than trying to centralize everything. https://t.co/NS27QOY5Wr

— Paolo Ardoino 🤖🍐 (@paoloardoino) November 3, 2024

In a separate post, Ardoino stated the reason for Tether’s reluctance to jump into the blockchain pool. He believes that creating a Tether blockchain will strengthen centralization and notes that “neutrality is very important.”

“Unstoppable TogETHER, our slogan underlines our interest in partnering with other companies and communities rather than trying to centralize everything,” Ardoino added.

In a past interview with Bloomberg in August 2024, Ardoino said that the blockchain market was already quite saturated. He also predicted that blockchains will become more of a “commodity” in the future.

“Launching a blockchain ourselves may not be the right move. There are very good blockchains,” Ardoino said.

At the time of this writing, Ethereum, TRON, and Solana are the three leading blockchains by total value locked, according to data from DeFi Llama. Ethereum ranks first with a TVL of $47.55 billion and 381,444 active addresses. Meanwhile, TRON ranks second with a TVL of $6.81 billion and 1.71 million active addresses. Solana ranks third with a TVL of $5.92 billion and 4.28 million active addresses.

On November 1, Tether reported earnings for the third quarter of 2024, which included several record-breaking highs, including equity capital of $14.2 billion and total assets of $134.4 billion on a consolidated basis. Tether’s third quarter report showed that demand for USDT stablecoins is also increasing, with circulation reaching nearly 30% in 2024. Tether also issued $27.8 billion worth of additional tokens this year.