Hot on the heels of an official announcement from USD Coin (USDC) the issuer Circle Pay, stablecoin Giant Tether has now officially confirmed its support for the upcoming Ethereum integration upgrade and switch to a Proof of Stake (PoS)-based blockchain.
The announcement came on the same day as its stable competitor, who They vowed that they would only support An upcoming Ethereum upgrade.
In a statement on Tuesday, Tether Named Incorporating one of the “most important moments in blockchain history” and making it clear that it will operate according to the Ethereum upgrade schedule, which is currently scheduled for implementation on September 19:
“Tether believes that in order to avoid any disruption to the community, especially when our tokens are used in DeFi projects and platforms, it is important that the transition to POS not be weaponized to create confusion and harm within the ecosystem.”
Tether will closely follow the progress and preparations for this event and will support the Ethereum POS in line with the official schedule. We believe a smooth transition is essential to the long-term health of the DeFi ecosystem and platforms, including those that use our tokens,” Tether added.
While the official statement was only released today, the chief technology officer of the stablecoin issuer Paolo Arduino previously indicated in July that they plan to support Eth2 after the merger.
I meant that we plan to support ETH2.
– Paoloardoino July 31, 2022
Rope (USDT) is currently the largest stablecoin in crypto, with a total market capitalization of $66.6 billion, while USDC is relatively close to $54.1 billion, according to CoinGecko. Both stablecoins have a significant amount of supply circulating on the existing Ethereum Proof of Work (PoW) blockchain, with USDT at $32.3 billion and USDC taking lead $45.1 billion at the time of writing.
Given the size of these stablecoins and their dominance in the stablecoin market, offering this support in this case should lead to a smooth transition for the Ethereum, Tether, and USD Coin ecosystems, as well as the broader crypto market as a whole.
Related: Institutions flock to Ethereum for 7 consecutive weeks as consolidation approaches: Report
However, as one of the founders of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin recently warnedTheir power is likely to cause problems for hard forks in the future Ethereum, as central entities like Tether and Circle can choose to use the forked chain for their own preferences rather than what the Ethereum community has suggested.
“I think in the near future this will definitely become a bigger concern. Basically, the fact that the USDC’s decision on which chain should be considered as Ethereum could become an important decision in future hard forks,” he said.
The issuers of stablecoins (circle / tether) control the choice of fork in Ethereum.
What happens when the state pressures the circle to support a fork that goes against the “moral community’s social contract?” https://t.co/dP7ZPFiJ0u
– Brandon Quittem (@Bquittem) August 6, 2022
This week, Ethereum will undergo its final merger trial via the Goerli testnet, and if all goes as planned, the merger date is unlikely to be September 19. delay.
