Tether removes support for USDT on five legacy chains

Tether, Inc. will end support for USDT tokens on five legacy chains. The tokens will be frozen as of September 1, as Tether focuses on its busiest networks, TRON and Ethereum. 

Tether, Inc. will discontinue the issuance and redemptions of USDT on five legacy blockchains. All remaining tokens will be frozen on Omni Layer, Bitcoin Cash SLP, Kusama, EOS, and Algorand, effective September 1. 

As Tether grows, the overall supply of stablecoins on the busiest networks, the issuer aims to optimize its infrastructure based on the latest usage trends. 

‘As the digital asset ecosystem evolves, Tether remains committed to adapting alongside it,’ said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether. 

‘Sunsetting support for these legacy chains allows us to focus on platforms that offer greater scalability, developer activity, and community engagement — all key components for driving the next wave of stablecoin adoption,’ Ardoino said.

All holders of remaining legacy tokens will have to find tools to swap their assets ahead of the freeze. Tether customers may call for a reissuance on another chain. Depending on where the tokens are stored, different providers may offer tools to swap the tokens to another chain. 

Some of the chains, like EOS, only have 4.3M USDT in circulation. The chain will have to rebuild its stablecoin liquidity after rebranding to Vaulta.

Omni carries around 87M tokens, and SLP has under 1M tokens. Around 841K remain on Algorand, and 239K on Kusama. The effect on the supply of USDT will be negligible, as those networks also retain extremely low traffic and have not developed their DeFi apps. Most of the projects were among an older generation of startups with sizeable token sales, which did not succeed in developing a robust ecosystem and user base.

The five legacy chains had much higher authorized supply, which was never minted. The limited usage also stemmed from the unwillingness of exchanges to carry multiple different wallets. 

Tether to bring USDT to new chains

Tether plans to expand its USDT issuance to new L2 chains, especially those with native DeFi projects. USDT remains one of the key sources of liquidity for DeFi, lending, and DEX pairs. 

The decision to issue more USDT on new chains will depend on developer activity, as well as user engagement metrics. 

Targeting L2 chains means Tether will try to catch up with Circle for its USDC usage. Currently, Arbitrum is the leading L2 in terms of stablecoin supply, mostly driven by USDC adoption. Arbitrum is one of the chains used to carry USDC for DeFi. Base is the other network with a robust USDC supply. 

Tether continues to mint USDT on TRON, with another 1B tokens created in the past 24 hours. For 2025 to date, Tether has minted 22B USDT on TRON, on increasing demand and circulation. TRON is becoming the leading chain for USDT in terms of daily users, once again surpassing the supply on Ethereum. 

The latest prints expanded the total supply of stablecoins above $250B, as Tether broke above 160B tokens. In the past month alone, USDT added another 2.42% to its supply, while USDC expanded by 2.01%.