The issuer of stablecoin Tether will discontinue its version of the Bitcoin Omni Layer, citing a lack of interest from users. Bitcoin’s version of Tether (USDT) was one of the first stablecoins ever created.Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Kusama (KSM) versions will also be available at discontinuedaccording to the team’s August 17 announcement.
today #tether Announced the end of support for 3 blockchains dollar ton: OmniLayer, BCH-SLP, and Kusama.
Customers will be able to continue to redeem and redeem dollar ton tokens (to another supported blockchain), but Tether will not issue any new additional tokens dollar ton In these 3… https://t.co/aghLgqtSuO— Paul Arduino (@paoloardoino) August 17, 2023
According to the announcement, no new Tether tokens will be issued on Bitcoin Omni Layer, Kusama, or Bitcoin Cash in the future. Redemptions will last for at least one year, and the company will issue a further announcement before the end of the year on how redemptions will be handled after that period.
Bitcoin Omni Layer is a smart contract system built on top of the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain. Originally called “Mastercoin,” it was released in July 2013, a full two years before Ethereum. Omni Layer Tether became the first stablecoin released on the system in October 2014. It quickly grew to become the largest stablecoin by market capitalization, surpassing earlier stablecoins such as BitUSD and NuBits.
In an announcement on Aug. 17, Tether sought to acknowledge Omni Layer Tether’s important historical role in crypto history, saying:
“We understand the significance of this decision, especially for Omni, as it was the first transport layer Tether used in 2014. Built on top of Bitcoin, the Omni Layer was instrumental in Tether’s early journey. We are grateful for these contributions and the team’s innovations in the crypto space.”
related: PayPal’s stablecoin opens the door for traditional financial adoption of crypto
However, the team stated that Omni Layer “has faced challenges due to the lack of popular tokens and the availability of USDT on other blockchains.” This led to exchanges using other transport layers instead of Omni, which in turn led to a decline in USDT Omni usage, And forced the company to stop issuing.
Tether claims that if the usage of Omni increases, it will consider re-releasing the Omni Layer version. The company also stated that it is developing a new Bitcoin smart contract system called “RGB” and plans to reissue Tether in an RGB version after completion, bringing Tether back to the Bitcoin blockchain.
In 2023, competition among stablecoins is heating up, challenging Tether’s dominance. PayPal launched PayPal USD (PYUSD) on August 7, and Binance listed First Digital USD (FDUSD) on July 26.
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