Tether Drops USDT Freezing Plan, Labels Five Blockchains as “Unsupported”

Highlights:

• Tether will discontinue USDT support on legacy blockchains, marking them as “unsupported.”
• Users can still transfer USDT on these networks, but new tokens won’t be issued.
• Tether shifts focus to developer-rich blockchains like Tron, Ethereum, and Solana.

Tether has decided not to freeze its USDT tokens, which are linked to the U.S. dollar, on five blockchains. Instead, the company will now label these blockchains as “unsupported,” according to a statement released on Aug. 29. This update affects users of Bitcoin Cash SLP, Kusama, Omni Layer, EOS, and Algorand

People who already hold USDT on these networks will still be able to send and receive their tokens between wallets, but Tether will stop creating new USDT or allowing direct exchanges for dollars on these platforms. The change happened after weeks of complaints from the community about Tether’s first plan, which would have blocked the tokens and made them impossible to move. “Following the feedback from the communities of these discontinued blockchains, Tether has revised this approach and will not freeze the smart contracts on these networks,” the company stated.

Tether Provides Update on Transition Plan for Legacy Blockchains
Learn more: https://t.co/XDoTUQNUbm

— Tether (@Tether_to) August 29, 2025

Tether Support for Low-Activity Networks

In June, Tether announced a plan starting Sept. 1 to freeze all USDT on some blockchains so people couldn’t move or redeem them. The company said this was to make things simpler since those blockchains weren’t used much. The tokens would still appear on the blockchain, but would be stuck with no way to use them. It said the new plan matches its bigger strategy and avoids hurting its reputation.

🚨 LATEST: Tether is dropping $USDT support on five chains — Omni, Bitcoin Cash SLP, Kusama, EOS, and Algorand — starting Sept 1, freezing transfers and redemptions thereafter.

Tether is reallocating resources toward high-utility chains with active DeFi ecosystems (Ethereum,… pic.twitter.com/GWpe6uyoNb

— CryptosRus (@CryptosR_Us) July 12, 2025

The new plan lets Tether stop using blockchains with little activity without upsetting users, since their tokens won’t be locked and unusable. A day after announcing plans to launch native USDT on Bitcoin via the RGB protocol, Tether said it will drop support for older blockchains. RGB ties USDT directly to Bitcoin’s security, unlike wrapped tokens.

Tether Shifts Focus to Developer-Rich Blockchains with Strong Growth Potential

Tether’s decision fits its bigger plan to focus on blockchains that have lots of developers, can handle growth, and have strong user demand while not fully leaving behind the older chains it has supported for years. So far, only a few blockchains have gained big user bases and real-world uses, mainly Tron and Ethereum, which are the two networks Tether supports the most.

DeFiLlama data reveals that Tron has $80.9 billion in USDT circulation, while Ethereum holds $72.4 billion in USDT. BNB Chain is third with $6.78 billion. Other growing crypto networks with a lot of stablecoin use include Solana and Ethereum layer-2 chains like Arbitrum and Base. But these mainly use Circle’s USDC instead of Tether’s USDT.

An analysis of USDT balances indicates that Omni Layer will be the most impacted, with $82.9 million in USDT still remaining there. The other blockchains have much smaller amounts: EOS has $4.2 million, and Bitcoin Cash SLP, Algorand, and Kusama each have less than $1 million.