#plasma $XPL

Plasma vs Tron: Why does Tether need a dedicated new chain?

In 2026, USDT remains the dominant stablecoin, with a supply exceeding 100 billion USD. However, more and more people are discussing Plasma, a stablecoin-specific L1 chain personally endorsed by Tether and led by Bitfinex.

Why has Tether moved away from relying on Tron to build Plasma itself? The core three points are fragmentation, cost, and performance:

1. Fragmentation

USDT is spread across multiple chains such as Ethereum, Tron, and Solana, with high costs for cross-chain bridging and severe liquidity fragmentation. Plasma natively integrates USDT deeply, aiming for unified liquidity. The mainnet launch will bring 2 billion TVL, already connected with many DeFi partners like Aave and Ethena + cross-chain aggregation, allowing large settlements and swaps to be almost seamless.

2. Cost

Tron's low fees (a few cents) used to be an advantage, but peak volatility and profits go to others. Plasma achieves truly zero-fee transfers for USDT, with other operations at extremely low costs. Through protocol-level mechanisms, users can operate without gas. This helps Tether capture billions in fees, achieving vertical integration of products and channels.

3. Performance

Tron's general-purpose chain can become congested during peak times. Plasma is optimized specifically for stablecoins: over 1000 TPS, <1 second block time, sub-second confirmations, and EVM compatibility. The Plasma One super app also offers over 10% annual savings and global payment capabilities, with network TVL stabilizing in the billions and daily active users continuously rising.

Plasma is not a competition but Tether's all-in effort to control the digital dollar infrastructure. For users: zero-fee transfers, low friction, and high yields. For the industry: stablecoins are moving from a multi-chain melee to a dedicated era.