Tether, a major stablecoin provider, has launched a new tool to facilitate the migration of its Tether (USDT) stablecoin across different blockchains. This move comes as USDT reaches a market capitalization of $100 billion.
On March 4, Tether announced the introduction of a blockchain recovery plan to ensure uninterrupted access to USDT in the event of disruptions on any of the blockchain networks used for USDT transactions. As of March 4, USDT is available on 14 blockchains, including Tron, Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, and Omni. Tron and Ethereum are the two largest blockchains, accounting for 51% and 43% of all USDT in circulation, respectively.
Despite its reliance on blockchains like Tron and Ethereum, Tether emphasizes that USDT is independent of any specific blockchain. The blockchains are primarily utilized as a transport layer for the stablecoin.
To address the potential risks associated with unresponsive or unreliable blockchains, Tether has developed an official recovery tool. This tool allows users to migrate their USDT between different blockchains. Users can initiate the migration process through a web interface or command-line tools. The process involves signing a cryptographic request to verify ownership of Tether tokens. This can be done using popular browser extension wallets like MetaMask or hardware wallets such as Ledger or Trezor. Alternatively, users can input their private key directly through a command-line interface and sign the necessary message using an open-source script on their local machine.
Tether’s launch of the recovery tool coincides with USDT reaching a significant milestone. On March 4, the USDT market cap surpassed $100 billion for the first time in history. Currently, USDT is the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, trailing behind Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), which have market caps of $1.4 trillion and $442 billion, respectively.
In terms of daily trading volume, USDT takes the lead as the largest cryptocurrency, with $132 billion in trades and transactions handled daily as of March 5. BTC and ETH follow closely with daily transaction volumes of $82 billion and $33 billion, respectively.