The TRON Foundation has announced a new partnership with Tether to issue the USDT stablecoin as a new token on the Tron (TRX) blockchain.

At present, Tether is issued on both the Omni Layer protocol and as an Ethereum-based ERC-20 token. As per the new partnership, the stablecoin will now be issued as a TRC-20 token on the Tron blockchain.

The goal is to move Tether’s USDT stablecoin on to the Tron network by the end of Q2 2019.

The move on to Tron’s established network will represent one of the first major crossovers in cryptocurrency. With the issuing of a TRC-20-based USDT, Tether’s seventh-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation will be fully compatible with Tron’s existing protocols, including its decentralised application (dApp) ecosystem.

Coin Rivet recently reported on the success of the Tron-based dApp TronBet, which has reportedly recorded $41 million in betting volume over the last week.

According to a press release, both Tron and Tether’s intention is to improve the experience of “enterprise-level partners and institutional investors”, giving them more flexibility in how they use the variety of features offered through Tron’s growing network.

Similar to the acquisition of BitTorrent and subsequent issuing of BitTorrent Tokens (BTTs), Tron is looking to expand its utility and adoption by integrating existing protocols into its blockchain and network service.

Tron founder Justin Sun also took to Twitter to say that the new partnership will “benefit our entire ecosystem and make it easier for institutions to access the TRON blockchain”.

Tether still holding its peg

The move also represents an interesting partnership for the Tether stablecoin project. The USDT coin has been met with controversy over the last few years, as various groups of investors have questioned Tether’s exact holdings and the 1:1 US dollar backing. But while the currency has been quiet as of late, it has most importantly continued to hold stable at its $1 peg.

Jean-Louis der Velde, Chief Executive Officer of Tether, said in the launch blog post: “This integration underlines our commitment to furthering innovation within the cryptocurrency space as we continue to anticipate the needs and demands of the digital asset community.”

“We are pleased to be embarking on this journey with TRON and providing our users with yet another access point into the field of decentralised finance.”