Shortly after the endorsement from USD Coin publisher Circle Pay, Tether also announced that they will support the Proof-of-Stake version of Ethereum after the Merge. The support of the big Tether is another blow to the relatively small group trying to promote Ethereum Proof-of-Work.
“One of the greatest moments in blockchain history”
In a statement on August 9, Tether calls the Merge one of the greatest moments in blockchain history. “To avoid problems with DeFi projects, among others, Tether believes it is important not to turn the transition to Proof-of-Stake into an armed struggle,” the company said in its statement. By this they mean the initiative of a group of people to continue the Ethereum Proof-of-Work blockchain.
Although the official statement came only on August 9, the head of the technology department, Paolo Ardoino, has already spoken positively about the Merge. There was a discussion on Twitter about the possibility that Tether would also support the Proof-of-Work version of Ethereum. Ardoino quickly put an end to that with the above tweet. “I meant we plan to support Ethereum 2.0,” Ardoino said on July 31.
The largest stablecoin
Tether is currently the largest stablecoin on the market with a market cap of $66.6 billion. Although USDC is chasing them with a market cap of $54.1 billion. Both stablecoins currently have the majority of their supply roaming on Ethereum’s Proof-of-Work blockchain. For Tether, this is $32.3 billion and USDC has $45.1 billion living on the Ethereum blockchain.
Given the size of both parties, the importance of their support for the new blockchain is high. If not, it could have potentially compromised the transition from Ethereum to Proof-of-Stake. So in this case, the two largest stablecoins are on the side of the update, which is likely to reassure the Ethereum community.
