Top Stablecoin Tether (USDT) Ends Support for Kusama (KSM), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) SLP and Omni Layer (OMNI) Chains

Tether, the firm behind the largest stablecoin by market cap, has officially ended support for three different blockchains.

On Thursday, the stablecoin issuer stopped minting USDT on Kusama (KSM), Bitcoin Cash’s (BCH) Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP), and Omni Layer (OMNI).

Tether says community interest is important in terms of its decision to bring USDT to specific blockchains.

“We carefully evaluate the effort required, encompassing security, customer support, compliance, and regulatory oversight, to ensure the security, usability, and sustainability of the chosen blockchain. If a blockchain lacks significant traction over an extended period and shows no signs of recovery in usage indicators, maintaining support becomes inefficient and may jeopardize security and oversight.”

Kusama is the canary test network for the interoperability blockchain Polkadot (DOT). Bitcoin Cash is a Bitcoin (BTC) hard fork, and the SLP is a token system for its network.

Omni Layer launched in 2013 as one of the original sidechain protocols for Bitcoin that attempted to bring more functionality to the king crypto, and was the first chain that Tether minted USDT on.

Tether’s chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino says dropping Omni was particularly hard for the stablecoin issuer.

“This decision pains our hearts, especially in regards to the Omni Layer, Tether USDT’s initial transport layer back in 2014.

Over the years, the Omni Layer faced challenges due to the lack of popular tokens and the availability of USDT on other blockchains. This led many exchanges to favor alternative transport layers, leading to a decline in USDT usage on Bitcoin using the Omni Layer.

As a principled organization, we must remain consistent and transparent, and adhere to open processes, even if it entails difficult choices.”

BCH is down more than 14% in the past 24 hours, and KSM is down more than 7%.

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