Tether’s Bitcoin Comeback: A Tale of Drama, Blockchains, and Sarcasm

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So, Tether—yes, the stablecoin juggernaut with a market cap that could buy a small country ($139 billion, but who’s counting?)—has decided to waltz back into Bitcoin’s arms. 🕺 Their USDT stablecoin is now on the Lightning Network, because apparently, Bitcoin wasn’t complicated enough already.

Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s CEO, is out here talking about “driving innovation” in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Sure, Paolo. Because what Bitcoin really needed was another layer of complexity. 🙄

The Lightning Network, that layer-2 scaling solution that rolled out in 2018, is supposed to make Bitcoin transactions faster and cheaper. Great. But let’s be real—it’s still Bitcoin. It’s like putting a turbocharger on a horse-drawn carriage. 🐎💨

Back to the Beginning (Because Why Not?)

Remember when USDT first launched in 2014? It was on Omni, a software layer built on Bitcoin. Omni, originally called Mastercoin (because why not confuse everyone?), was one of the first attempts to scale Bitcoin. Spoiler alert: it didn’t exactly set the world on fire. 🔥

Then, in 2018, Tether decided to hop on the Ethereum bandwagon with ERC-20 USDT. That was the beginning of the end for Omni. The ERC-20 version was more efficient, so naturally, it took off. And in 2019, Tether added Tron to the mix because, hey, why not spread the chaos? 🌪️

Binance, the crypto exchange that’s basically the Walmart of digital assets, dropped Omni-based USDT in 2021. And in August 2023, Tether finally pulled the plug on Omni. It was only 0.3% of the total supply, so no one really noticed. 🪦

Blockchain Buffet

Now, USDT is available on 17 blockchains. Seventeen! That’s more blockchains than I have pairs of socks. 🧦 Ethereum and Tron are the big players, with $74.4 billion and $59 billion in circulation, respectively. The rest? Well, they’re just there for the ride. 🎢

Tether on Bitcoin
Blockchain Chaos

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2025-01-31 08:44