Tether won’t confirm or deny if it’s dropping USDT on Tron

Stablecoin issuer Tether didn’t provide a definitive answer on whether or not it would cease support for the Tron network after its rival Circle ceased minting its stablecoin on the blockchain on Tuesday.

“Tether tokens are issued on several blockchains, which are simply transport layers for such tokens,” Tether said in a statement to Cointelegraph when asked for comment about Circle and whether Tether was considering a similar move.

“Tether retains the ability to freeze transactions on each directly supported transport layer to accomplish its compliance duties. Nevertheless Tether actively monitors the safety of each one of the supported transport layers to ensure the highest standards to our community,” the firm said.

Tether (USDT $1.00) is the largest stablecoin with a market capitalization of $97.7 billion, and Circle’s USD Coin (USDC $1.00) trails at $28 billion, according to CoinGecko data.

The Tron network is home to over 51.8 billion USDT — over half of the nearly 101 billion USDT tokens issued across multiple blockchains, according to Tether’s transparency report dated Feb. 21.

An additional nearly $76.2 million is set aside to provide near-term liquidity for the token on the Tron network.

A screenshot of Tether’s USDT transparency report cropped to show only USDT’s top three blockchains and its total assets. Source: Tether

Tether's comments came in response to an announcement from Circle on Feb. 20, with the firm revealing it was immediately ending the minting of USDC on Tron and would gradually phase out support for the network, saying the decision aligns with “efforts to ensure that USDC remains trusted, transparent and safe.”

Last month, a United Nations report said “USDT on the Tron blockchain has become a preferred choice” for cyber fraud and money launders in Southeast Asia due to the “ease, anonymity, and low fees of its transactions.”

Tether rebuffed the report, saying the UN ignored USDT’s traceability and the firm’s record of law enforcement collaboration.

It highlighted that it froze over $300 million worth of USDT used in crime “within the last few months,” including $225 million worth frozen in November 2023 as part of a United States probe into a Southeast Asian human trafficking syndicate.

Ethics watchdog group Campaign for Accountability wrote to the United States Congress in November alleging Tron “has been named in multiple international law enforcement actions involving billions of dollars in transactions by alleged organized crime groups and sanctioned entities.”

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued the Tron Foundation and founder Justin Sun in March 2023, alleging they offered unregistered securities and conducted manipulative trading, which Sun denies.