By CCN: Speaking to CCN, Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino stated that Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin in market valuation, is launching on the EOS blockchain protocol.
The launch of Tether on EOS follows its release on the TRON blockchain network in April.
Why tether is operating on EOS
In an interview, Ardoino stated that the key motive behind the team’s decision to push for the release of Tether on EOS is to supplement eosfinex.
In February, Kasper Rasmussen, the marketing head at Bitfinex, announced the launch of eosfinex, a decentralized crypto asset exchange build on top of the EOS protocol.
On eosfinex, as with any other decentralized exchange, it is difficult to process fiat transactions or crypto-to-fiat pairs due to the lack of a centralized entity that oversees the platform.
Ardoino told CCN:
One of the main reasons is that we need it for eosfinex. Since it is a on chain exchange we need Tether EOS to offer EOS/USDt and crypto-to-stablecoin pairs on it. EOSFinex is one of the most awaited projects in the EOS community but we thought it would be good to start giving everyone the ability to build on Tether-EOS even before EOSFinex launch.
Currently, Tether operates on Omni, Ethereum, and TRON, and Ardoino stated that cross-chain support is crucial for the long-term success of a stablecoin.
By the year’s end, Ardoino said that the Bitfinex team is collaborating with Blockstream to launch Tether on Liquid and to bring assets on the Lightning Network with the intent of launching Tether on the Lightning Network by the end of 2019.
He added:
Also Tether is currently on Omni, Ethereum, Tron and I have been quite vocal in the past about the importance of opening to multiple chains. We can’t hide behind the fact that communities are split among multiple projects, so I believe is our duty to serve the blockchains that have the most active communities and clearly that can meet our security standards in terms of issuance. I’m working with Blockstream to launch Tether on Liquid and as Bitfinex we are collaborating with the RGB protocol community to bring assets to LN (and so I hope that Tether will launch on LN by end of 2019).
The decision to improve the interoperability of Tether comes after Bitfinex raised $1 billion for LEO, a utility token developed by the company to cover $900 million of the reported losses it suffered during its dealings with Crypto Capital Corp.
Looks like Bitfinex just raised $1 billion https://t.co/aZyqEcvs7K
— Barry Silbert (@barrysilbert) May 13, 2019
Earlier this month, after the $1 billion fundraise, Ardoino stated that the swift completion of the private sale shows the confidence of investors in the company’s operations.
“Why? Because they know we are trustworthy, they recognize what we have been doing (without needing us bragging about it publicly) and they want us to keep fighting for the industry whole. Their own words. Thank you everyone for the amazing support we got. We are impressed,” he said at the time.
Positivity towards eos
This week, Coinbase, the biggest crypto asset exchange in the U.S. listed EOS on Coinbase.com, Coinbase Android, and Coinbase iOS, describing EOS as “a cryptocurrency designed to support large-scale decentralized applications.”
EOS has recorded a 188% year-to-date gain against the USD (source: coinmarketcap.com)
“Starting today, Coinbase supports EOS (EOS) at Coinbase.com and in the Coinbase Android and iOS apps. Coinbase customers can now buy, sell, convert, send, receive, or store EOS,” the Coinbase team said.
Year-to-date, the price of EOS has increased by 188 percent against the U.S. dollar, primarily fueled by the strong recovery of bitcoin from around $4,000 to $9,000.
