#Plasma Like a dedicated stablecoin "highway," it optimizes the circulation of Tether (USDT), making transfers lightning fast and fees negligible. This inevitably leads its collaborations to focus on high-frequency scenarios such as payments, lending, yield generation, and RWA (real-world assets). Unlike Ethereum’s "all-in-one" chain, Plasma resembles a specialized "stablecoin expert," expanding its ecosystem from DeFi to real-world payments and energy sectors through partnerships. The result? Its native token $XPL rapidly soared from a market cap of $240 million at mainnet launch to now several billion dollars, thanks to the liquidity and trust injected by these collaborations.
Let's first talk about those 'big player' partners, which have directly laid the foundation for the ecosystem.@Plasma The first among them is Tether (USDT) and Bitfinex—these two are the 'stablecoin twins' of the crypto world. From Day 0, Plasma has deeply integrated USDT, supporting cross-chain bridging of $141 billion USDT liquidity across 14 chains including Ethereum, Tron, TON, and Arbitrum. Imagine this: in emerging markets like Turkey or Argentina, users can settle cross-border payments instantly with USDT without worrying about high gas fees or delays. This is not just technical integration; it’s a strategic alliance personally endorsed by Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino. Bitfinex, as a trading giant, also injected funds during early financing, helping Plasma raise $24 million. The result? The trading volume of USDT on Plasma has skyrocketed, becoming the 'invisible highway' of global payments. Compared to other chains like Solana’s 'high throughput but high volatility,' Plasma's specialization in stablecoins allows it to stand out in payment scenarios—Tether's global dominance (holding 62.5% of the stablecoin market) directly injects a 'moat' for Plasma.
Now let's talk about the 'killer' collaborations in the DeFi space, which have upgraded Plasma from a mere 'transfer chain' to a yield machine. In June 2025, Plasma's strategic partnership with Aave was cemented: Aave's lending protocol directly integrated Plasma, allowing institutional users to distribute liquidity to underdeveloped markets through USDT. This means users can borrow USDT on Plasma, earn Aave's native yield, and enjoy zero-fee transfers. Following that, Ethena Labs' USDe (synthetic USD) also came aboard—users can exchange USDT for Ethena's sUSDe and withdraw earnings at any time. Ethena's 'delta-neutral' strategy (hedging risks to earn stable returns) perfectly aligns with Plasma's payment orientation, transforming holders from 'saving money' to 'making money.' Other DeFi protocols like Euler, Fluid, and WildcatFi have also joined; WildcatFi even built a 'transparent private credit layer' on Plasma, providing short-term financing for real-time settlement. These collaborations not only enhance TVL (Total Value Locked) but also shift Plasma's ecosystem from 'passive storage' to 'active finance'—just think about it, on one chain, you can borrow USDT with zero fees, earn Ethena yield, and seamlessly bridge to Ethereum dApps; this is so much stronger than isolated DeFi projects!
Don't think that Plasma is only playing with DeFi; its ambitions in the payments and RWA fields are even greater. On November 13, Plasma announced a massive payment partnership with Zerohash—this is its largest payment collaboration to date, allowing merchants to directly receive payments in USDT on Plasma. Zerohash, as a payment processing giant, propels Plasma into enterprise-level applications, covering instant settlements for global merchants. Similarly, Binance Earn's $100 million USDT locking product has instantly expanded Plasma's liquidity pool, attracting massive institutional funds. In the realm of RWA (real-world assets), Plasma's innovations are eye-catching: partnering with Daylight Energy to tokenize clean energy revenues into GRID stablecoins and sGRID yield tokens, allowing users to earn power-backed returns through Plasma. This is not just a bridge between crypto and reality; it also responds to the global energy crisis—imagine your electricity bill turning into on-chain yield assets! Additionally, Uranium Digital's uranium mining on-chain has made Plasma the 'new favorite' of RWA. Compared to other projects like MakerDAO's RWA experiments, Plasma's energy integration is more grounded, directly addressing blackouts and inflation pain points.
$XPL
Plasma's ecosystem is also inseparable from those 'infrastructure-level' partners, attracting developers in droves. The integration of Trust Wallet (the world's largest non-custodial wallet) has directly pushed Plasma's stablecoin track towards hundreds of millions of users. After the launch of BlockSec's Phalcon Explorer, transaction visualization has become more transparent, attracting more auditing and monitoring tools. Recently, the addition of Rubic (cross-chain aggregator) and Lido (cross-chain stETH via Chainlink CCIP) has further strengthened Plasma's interoperability. Even the API integrations of Nexo and Covalent have enabled seamless access to yield and data analysis. These collaborations stack like building blocks, transforming Plasma from 'going it alone' into an open 'stablecoin universe'—developers can easily deploy EVM contracts, and merchants can connect with zero friction.
At this point, I have to say: Plasma's cooperation strategy is too clever. It doesn't create a 'closed garden,' but instead invites everyone to co-build like an 'open-source highway.' Compared to other crypto projects—like Solana's 'high performance but many centralization controversies,' or Polygon's 'sidechain expansion but reliant on Ethereum'—Plasma focuses more on 'stablecoin PMF' (Product-Market Fit), avoiding competition through partnerships and directly tapping into the blue ocean of payments and RWA. Of course, there are challenges: network activity can sometimes be sluggish, and the token unlock in 2026 is a test. However, these collaborations have allowed $XPL to rebound 7% from $0.23, with a market cap firmly exceeding $5 billion. In the future, if Plasma can bring on more payment partners like Rain (the Avalanche Card issuer) and cover a card network in 150 countries, it will definitely become the 'Android system' of the stablecoin era.