The news about @Tether_to (USDT) launching on the @Aptos blockchain today has been electric. Tether’s rich blockchain history complements Aptos’s significant progress in its two years since launching its mainnet.
@Tether_to, launched in 2014, is the largest stablecoin by market cap. It aims to maintain a 1:1 peg with the US dollar, providing stability in the volatile crypto market.
USDT has been integrated into multiple blockchains over the years, including Ethereum, TRON, Solana, and now Aptos. Each integration has aimed to improve accessibility and reduce transaction costs.
USDT was initially launched on the Bitcoin blockchain using the Omni Layer Protocol. In 2018, it was released on the Ethereum blockchain as an ERC-20 token. This integration significantly increased USDT’s transaction speed and reduced fees, making it compatible with decentralized applications (DApps) on Ethereum.
Tether expanded to the TRON blockchain in 2019. As of now, Tron has the largest net circulation of USDT with $61.74 billion. The integration with TRON has provided users with faster transactions and lower fees compared to Ethereum.
USDT was launched on the Solana blockchain in 2021. This integration aimed to leverage Solana’s high-speed, low-cost transaction capabilities. Currently, Solana hosts $757.15 million worth of USDT.
The launch on Aptos promises extremely low gas fees, costing only a fraction of a penny. This could make USDT more accessible for a wider range of use cases, from microtransactions to large-scale operations.
Aptos has shown significant growth, with daily active users increasing from 96K in January to 170K in July 2024. In May 2024, it processed a record-breaking 157 million transactions in a single day, afterwards breaking this record on Aug 15th with 326m+ daily transactions.
Development on Aptos has also been very active. As of July 2024, Aptos had:
- 179 Full-time devs
- 835 Monthly active devs
- 5,141 Total Aptos repos
- 7,136,356 Total Aptos commits
More development stats are in the @ElectricCapital report ! 
Some of the total user and ecosystem stats over the last two years can be seen in the recent Aptos Foundation article “2 Years of Aptos: Celebrating Network & Ecosystem Mainnet Growth”
USDT’s integration often brings increased liquidity and volume to a blockchain. For example, TRON saw a surge in activity after USDT launched on its network and it recently surpassed VISA in daily average volume.
Tether CEO @paoloardoino stated:
“This collaboration underscores our ongoing efforts to lead with innovation and support our users with stable, reliable financial tools.”
Aptos CEO @moshaikhs added:
“This collaboration will leverage Aptos’ capability to process massive volumes and rapidly grow its user base”
As of October 2024, USDT had a market cap of $120.5 billion, making it the third-largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The launch of USDT on Aptos marks another milestone in Tether’s expansion and is set to boost Aptos’ ecosystem growth. Stay tuned to all official announcement channels for more developments!
