The capitalization of Tether's USDT stablecoin has approached a record high of $150 billion. In addition to the fact that USDT has gone beyond a trading instrument on crypto exchanges, the token has become a multifunctional tool for everyday use.

It has also become a source of income not only for the issuer itself (Tether), but also for entire blockchain networks that receive income from fees for transactions with USDT.

However, other profit—making mechanisms may soon appear, other than the usual collection of commissions - the Plasma blockchain project offers one of these options.

At the end of April, Tether began testing project solutions with the large African payment startup YellowCard in more than 20 countries. Around the same time, Plasma founder Paul Fex and Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino participated in the panel discussion "The Future of Stablecoins in Global Payments" at the Token2049 conference in Dubai.

During his speech, Ardoino noted that the intermediary networks on which USDT operates receive a significant share of the revenue from the stablecoin infrastructure, while not offering commensurate benefits.

According to him, this was one of the reasons for the possible transition to Plasma as a network with zero fees for USDT transfers. He expressed confidence that this solution will make the use and storage of the token more convenient and widespread.

Plasma developers are creating a blockchain for fast USDT transfers without fees. This is achieved by redistributing income within the ecosystem: the network itself does not charge a commission from users, but earns from integrated services from the sector of decentralized financial applications (DeFi), such as Curve, Aave and Ethena, which will work in Plasma.

Stablecoins are cryptocurrency tokens whose exchange rate is linked to an asset, such as a dollar, euro, or an ounce of gold. Companies use securities, national currencies, or other crypto assets to ensure that the exchange rate is linked to the underlying asset.

USDT is the largest stablecoin by capitalization with an indicator of $149.8 billion as of May 6. Tether is one of the fastest growing crypto companies on the market with a net profit of $13 billion for 2024.

This approach differs markedly from traditional income-generating mechanisms because it is the number of transactions in a particular blockchain that determines the income of network node operators who process them.

This is a characteristic feature of blockchain networks, where virtually any operation requires the user to pay commissions that go to independent operators as payment for the operation.

For context, the capitalization of USDT issued on the Tron blockchain is $71.4 billion, and on Ethereum the figure exceeded $64.7 billion, which is more than 91% of the share of all USDT issued on other networks.

The total number of transactions with USDT on Tron is ten times higher than the number on Ethereum. For example, in the first quarter of 2025, Tron processed about 130 million USDT transactions. While Ethereum recorded only 11.1 million.

Over the past few years, Tron has been considered one of the cheapest blockchains for transactions with USDT tokens, offering a cost-effective alternative to USDT transfers via Ethereum. And if you look at the cumulative revenue figures of a particular blockchain from the beginning of 2025 to May 6, according to the Token Terminal, then Tron is one of the most profitable crypto projects after Tether.

For example, over the past month, the figure exceeded $ 8.5 million, while for Ethereum it amounted to about $106 thousand.

What is Plasma?

The Plasma cryptoproject is inherently a competing blockchain for Tron in terms of using USDT. Despite the fact that Tether's management previously stated in mid-2024 that it was not interested in launching its own blockchain project, the situation may change over time.

"We are very well versed in technology. In the future, blockchain will become almost a commodity. Launching it on its own may not be the right step. There are very good solutions," Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino told Bloomberg in August 2024.

However, in October 2024, Plasma developers raised $3.5 million from the Bitfinex crypto exchange and several venture funds. Back then, they stated that the goal of the project was to create a fast bitcoin—based dollar payment tool that could also be used to work with DeFi and real assets (RWAs).

Bitfinex is one of the oldest crypto exchanges, founded back in 2012. Before the advent of Coinbase and Binance, it held a leading position in the market. The exchange is closely linked to the issuer of the largest USDT stablecoin, Tether. Paolo Arduino is the CEO of Tether and the CTO of Bitfinex.

In February 2025, Plasma developers raised $24 million as part of an investment round led by the Framework Ventures foundation. Other investors include the Bitfinex exchange, billionaire Peter Thiel, and Ardoino personally from Tether.

It is noteworthy that in February 2025, Tron founder Justin Sun also announced the function of sending USDT without commission, but using a completely different technology and with some conventions.

How does Plasma work?

Plasma uses bitcoin technology, but is also compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) virtual environment. The developers adapted the transaction recording system from bitcoin by adding accounts, as in Ethereum.

This, in particular, opens up the possibility of receiving passive income (staking) for bitcoin holders, as well as full compatibility with EVM.

EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) is a software environment for running smart contracts and decentralized applications on the Ethereum blockchain. It works as a distributed computer without centralized management. EVM is one of the key elements of the success of Ethereum.

The Plasma network is also implemented as a bitcoin sidechain with the ability to periodically fix the state in the main blockchain. This allows you to use the security of the bitcoin network as a basic settlement layer, strengthening censorship resistance and ensuring the verifiability of transaction history.

At the execution level, the Reth engine is used — a modular implementation of EVM in the Rust language. This ensures full compatibility with the Ethereum ecosystem and allows you to run dap and DeFi protocols without adaptation.

At the same time, Plasma supports confidential transactions and the ability to pay commissions in USDT or BTC.

The Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) mechanism used in blockchains such as Solana and Ethereum is used as a consensus mechanism. However, Plasma has introduced its own modification of BFT called Hot Stuff, which is a faster version of the traditional BFT designed specifically for high volume transactions with stablecoins.

Byzantine fault tolerance (BFT) is a property of a computer system or a dispute resolution algorithm where agreement is achieved regardless of rejection or malicious actions of some of its participants.

According to the developers, the Plasma network is capable of processing up to 2,000 transactions per second for USDT transfers. According to Zahir Ebtikar, founder and chief investment officer of Split Capital (an investor in Plasma), such indicators are achieved due to the fact that the network has reduced the functionality of the blockchain, focusing on minimizing commissions for users of stablecoins.