According to a report by Blockworks, Coinbase has informed Canadian users that it will suspend trading of the stablecoin Tether (USDT) at the end of August. Trading suspensions will also apply to RAI Reflex Index (RAI) and Dai (DAI) but will not affect customers' access to wallet functionality for deposits and withdrawals.
This comes as Coinbase accelerates its international expansion with a launch in Canada, citing strong crypto awareness, a local tech ecosystem, and progress toward a robust regulatory framework.
Meanwhile, Tether announced a “strategic transition,” discontinuing support for Kusama, Bitcoin Cash SLP, and Omni Layer implementations. Of note, Omni was the first layer on which Tether was implemented back when it was Realcoin in 2014. However, due to a lack of popular tokens and USD₮ availability on other blockchains, it faces challenges.
From Aug. 17, minting of USDT-Omni, USDT-Kusama, and USDT-BCHLSP will cease. However, they will remain redeemable for the next 12 months. Bitfinex and other platforms will still facilitate swaps for other chains.
Tether now aims to focus on developing RGB, a client-side validated state and smart contracts system operating on layers 2 and 3 of the Bitcoin ecosystem. As of June 30, Tether had around $73 billion of US Treasury bills exposure, with excess revenues of $3.3 billion.