Tether On Strike
Tether and Strike money app have merged their user bases by adding USDT to the bitcoin-only platform.
On May 22, Tether announced that it was adding its most popular stablecoin USDT to the Bitcoin payment application Strike. The CTO of Tether, Paolo Ardoino commented on the news:
“This is a pivotal moment for the cryptocurrency industry as it signifies the growing acceptance and recognition of stablecoins as a reliable and efficient digital payment solution. We believe this collaboration will foster the widespread adoption of digital currencies, driving innovation and creating a more inclusive financial ecosystem for all."
Strike is a digital money payment and transfer platform powered by Bitcoin's Lightning Network founded by Jack Mallers in 2019. The application both initializes and finalizes the transactions in fiat currencies so users interact with a familiar e-money application interface. Behind the scenes, it translates the amounts to bitcoin and sends them via Bitcoin Lightning network.
While the operational advantage of such design is yet to be proved, Strike has already seen significant traction in the U.S., Argentina and Guatemala. In particular, it has been popular for cross border private remittances, transferring more than $140 billion in 2022.
The beginning of 2023 was marked by a series of announcements from Strike regarding the opening of new locations in regions such as Africa and the Philippines, before announcing a global rollout during the Bitcoin 2023 conference in Miami.
The technical details of the integration have not been released, but we can assume that USDT will be traveling on the Bitcoin Lighting network too. Tether had similar integrations with Synonym before, using Bitcoin's L2 Omni protocol. It is worth noting that Tether was available solely on Bitcoin's Omni from its launch in 2014 until expanding to Ethereum in 2020.
It is yet to be seen who benefits most out of this deal: the Bitcoin maximalist Strike application or the pragmatic, omnivorous Tether. It could be both, but for the sake of objectivity we should admit that the application only fell under our observation radar after Tether's integration. We will continue to Observe from now on.
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