A new player just entered the stablecoin game, and they have the backers to show that they’re not messing around.

Plasma, backed by PayPal mafia OG Peter Thiel, just secured $24M to build what they're calling the ultimate stablecoin blockchain. 

And get this – they've got Tether's CEO Paolo Ardoino and Bitfinex in their corner.

What's The Big Deal?

Plasma is building a Bitcoin-based chain that promises zero-fee USDT transfers. 

Zero-fee is quite a low-cost environment, and the question becomes: how are they making this happen?

The answer comes in the form of the players involved, the subsidized costs, and the already dirt-cheap transaction environment in which money is moving. 

Speaking of tech, they're cooking up some really powerful stuff.

They have a Bitcoin sidechain that plays nice with Ethereum's EVM, some fancy "Nakamoto Proof-of-Stake" that they claim is 100x more efficient than Bitcoin, and they’re packing it all with enough horsepower to handle thousands of transactions per second

Changing The Stablecoin Game

Plasma's co-founder Paul Faecks dropped some truth bombs about stablecoins being treated like "second-class citizens" on current blockchains. 

He's not wrong – USDT moves more money than Visa these days, and stablecoins like it underpin entire networks' worth of liquidity.

But despite all this, they’re treated like any other coin on the market – it’s a bit of a thankless gig. 

Their solution is to keep their eyes on that "trillion-dollar stablecoin opportunity" – starting with USDT, which controls about 70% of all stablecoin volume. 

The idea is to court these stablecoins into a comfy new home, and, should it work out, the rest of the market will have to plug in to play nice with the world’s most liquid dollar equivalents.

Plase mainnet is scheduled to drop in Q2 2025, and they're already thinking about remittances, payments, and DeFi.

Serious Money Involved

When Peter Thiel writes a check, people notice – he has a long history of betting on the right horse in any tech race. 

But when Bitfinex and Tether's CEO jump in too… well, that’s like the crypto equivalent of the Avengers assembling to tackle the nebulous evil of “the stablecoin fees are too high!”

A countless number of L1 blockchains have been hitting the market lately, with the most promising to be an "Ethereum killer” of some kind.

But Plasma is different – this is a purpose-built highway for the most used cryptocurrency in the world – USDT.

Think no fees, Bitcoin-level security, Ethereum-level compatibility, and the blessing of the stablecoin kings themselves.

It’s more than a VC play this time around – it’s a genuine “This is the new VISA” sort of approach to an L1. 

But Will It Work?

So sure, this very well could be the new VISA.

Or it could flop like other "game-changing” blockchain initiatives that have come before it.

But there’s something to be said when the guy who helped build PayPal teams up with the company that essentially runs the stablecoin market.

We’ll be keeping an eye, and maybe a few USDT, on this one.