Author: Chilla, Analyst at Castle Labs
Translated by: Tim, PANews
Stablecoins are dominating the market, gradually penetrating into traditional finance and retail markets. For example, supermarkets in some South American countries have started to directly label product prices in USDT stablecoins. Their application scenarios do exist, and supporting this expansion trend may require seeking new types of infrastructure.
Recently, we have seen news about stablecoin-related chains, such as Plasma and Stable.
What are their projects?
What are their differences?
Are they indispensable?
The rise of stablecoin-exclusive chains
The design goals of Plasma and Stable are to achieve faster, cheaper, and more scalable stablecoin transfer capabilities. The core idea is to attract liquidity by absorbing funds from old networks that are less efficient but still hold a large number of stablecoins.
Although there are some fundamental differences between these two networks, their similarities may be more pronounced. It is particularly noteworthy that the strongest commonality lies in USDT, which is the core hub of both.
More specifically, both integrate USDT0. This is the anti-fragmentation version of USDT that can be natively exchanged across different blockchain networks via LayerZero, currently primarily based on the Arbitrum network and continuously expanding to emerging public chains. For end users, the experience is no different from regular USDT.
https://t.co/S14LTzmoqx
— Chilla (@chilla_ct) May 30, 2025
Plasma
Plasma is built as a Bitcoin sidechain, meaning it inherits Bitcoin's security through an anchoring mechanism while maintaining its own independent consensus mechanism. In simple terms, a malicious attacker would need to compromise Bitcoin to alter Plasma's historical records, but Bitcoin itself does not validate Plasma's blocks.
The system is designed for thousands of transactions per second and about 1 second for final confirmation, making it very suitable for the quick transfer of the dollar stablecoin USDT. However, the most prominent feature compared to regular blockchains is that the underlying USDT transfers incur no GAS fees at all. So what is its profit model? The answer is: the network charges GAS fees for all other operations, and by attracting users through free transfers to create a scale effect, a surge in users will drive up the volume of on-chain operations that require payment. This is exactly its operational strategy to generate revenue through second-order effects.
Another special aspect is that when it comes to transaction fees, users can choose to pay with USDT or Bitcoin. The platform is fully EVM compatible, allowing developers to easily deploy Ethereum applications. Given the platform's dual support from Bitfinex exchange and Tether, it is not difficult to understand its focus on USDT and Bitcoin.
Stable
Stable has adopted a different implementation plan. It is an independent first-layer network, not a sidechain, and uses a self-developed proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. Similar to Plasma, Stable is also EVM compatible. The transfer GAS fee for USDT stablecoins is zero, while fees for all other on-chain operations still need to be paid. A key characteristic of the GAS fee is: only USDT is accepted as the payment currency.
Stable is supported by Bitfinex and USDT0. The company hired Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino as an advisor from the very beginning, fully demonstrating its focus on the main circulating stablecoin USDT.
Moreover, they seem to focus more on enterprise and institutional clients, which will be discussed in detail later.
Privacy strategy
Both networks are very focused on privacy protection. Although the specific circumstances are unclear, the concept of shielded transactions mentioned by Plasma and the confidential transfer technology adopted by Stable are designed to protect transaction privacy while maintaining compliance.
Overall, there is currently not much exact information regarding the infrastructure between these two types. Besides the technical differences clarified above, it is reported that the Stable platform will also add more institutional-friendly features, such as:
Dedicated blockchain space services for enterprises: Providing dedicated blockchain space for businesses. This means ensuring stable transaction speeds regardless of network congestion, without skyrocketing costs.
USDT transfer aggregator: Integrating multiple USDT0 transfers for processing to improve speed and reduce transaction costs.
So far, do they have real use cases?
Of the market value of $158.304 billion USDT, 49.27% circulates through the TRON network. Are there still people using this chain? The ecosystem development of new public chains is much more advanced than it.
However, it was indeed the cheapest and most efficient option initially. Therefore, Tether has always used this chain to mint and transfer funds. However, the design intention of the TRON public chain is not for this purpose. More critically, Tether has not deeply participated in this chain ecosystem; it is merely a user. If it loses control over USDT, it will be the last straw that breaks TRON's back. Given the lack of a sustainable ecosystem for this chain, such an outcome is bound to occur.
The core strategy of chains like Plasma and Stable is to target ecosystems with weak DeFi foundations to absorb liquidity. The goal is not to eliminate competitors but to construct a hub centered around USDT payments and commercial settlement, especially using the advantage of free transfers to surpass those inefficient chain ecosystems is not a difficult task. The liquidity attracted by this will naturally drive user and capital influx, thereby giving rise to new DeFi protocols and ultimately building a truly vibrant ecosystem.
All of this may give rise to a new SWIFT-like system, specifically serving stablecoins, where Tether not only issues stablecoins but also becomes a dual cornerstone supporting currency value and underlying infrastructure. With the scale advantage of USDT, Tether can benefit from this, while Plasma and Stable can fully enjoy the dividends brought by the rapid flow of funds on their network.
It is undeniable that other blockchain ecosystems will not be forgotten because of this. Core functions focused on debit card payments and fiat exchange channels like Solana, Ethereum focusing on the DeFi field and its second-layer solutions, as well as emerging chains with specific application scenarios, may continue to thrive.
Recent progress of Plasma
Although this does not represent long-term sustainability, the short-term heat has been fully validated through the public token sale of Plasma, with total deposits within the subscription limit reaching $1 billion. This indicates that when the chain goes live, it will rank 12th in stablecoin circulation.
In addition, Plasma has promoted multiple collaborations, such as:
Yellow Card: Focused on USDT transfer services in Africa.
BiLira Kripto: Connecting the Turkish lira with stablecoins for cross-border payments.
Uranium Digital: Bringing commodity trading on-chain.
Axis: Launching interest-bearing synthetic dollars (xyUSD).
Curve and Ethena, etc.
We will also wait for the subsequent developments of Stable.
Conclusion
This does not mean that such projects will definitely achieve product-market fit. In fact, the concept of 'stablecoin public chains' may just be a clever marketing strategy: both creating a spotlight effect for USDT and generating heat with zero GAS fees as a gimmick. Essentially, this sets the stage for vampire attacks, but it does not create token incentives out of thin air (like the SushiSwap model), but rather achieves this by exempting users from transaction costs. To some extent, it can be seen as a free value-added model in the transaction domain.
Both chains are ready. But what will be more interesting in the future is to observe how they will compete differentially and choose the best market channels, with the emphasis on whether they can build a sustainable business ecosystem.
(The above content is excerpted and reprinted with the authorization of partner PANews, original link)
"Are the stablecoin public chains Plasma and Stable global payment reshapers? Or are they clever marketing narratives?" This article was first published in (Blockguest).
