The project, called StableChain, is rolling out with a bold idea: instead of relying on volatile tokens to run its network, it uses Tether’s USDT as the native transaction fuel. That means fees — the basic cost of sending value through the system — are settled in something with a fixed price, not an asset swinging up and down with market emotion.
StableChain launched with USDT as gas, positioning stablecoins at the core of its design.
A $2B pre-deposit and backing from Bitfinex and Tether signal strong early interest.
The launch reflects a growing push for blockchains engineered specifically for payments.
A Project With Momentum Before It Even Launched
The launch is part of a broader architecture shift. Stable, the company behind the chain, has created a governance foundation and a separate token called STABLE to oversee decision-making. The goal is to ensure the mechanics of running the network are insulated from the payment flows passing through it — a structure more common to institutional finance than blockchain startups.
StableChain didn’t arrive quietly. Before the doors opened, it ran a pre-deposit campaign that saw more than $2 billion committed by over 24,000 wallets — a signal that the network’s pitch resonated with a surprisingly large audience.
That enthusiasm also mirrors its investor pedigree. Stable raised $28 million this year from Bitfinex, Hack VC and others, with Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino doubling as both backer and advisor. The arrangement underscores how closely the new chain sits inside the iFinex orbit — the corporate group behind Tether and Bitfinex.
Why Stablecoin-Native Blockchains Are Suddenly Everywhere
StableChain is entering a field that barely existed a year ago. As stablecoins exploded in usage, payment rails designed for them failed to keep pace. Today, most stablecoin transfers still bounce across networks like Ethereum — platforms powerful but not optimized for remittances, commerce or settlement. Waiting minutes for confirmation is tolerable in DeFi, but a non-starter for retail finance.
That gap has sparked a scramble to build new infrastructure tailor-made for digital fiat. Plasma, backed by Peter Thiel and Bitfinex investors, went live in September with its own USDT-centric network and the XPL token.
Circle — issuer of USDC — is working on Arc, a chain built for cross-border transactions and institutional flows. Even Stripe, one of the world’s biggest payment processors, is preparing a network called Tempo after its CEO dismissed existing blockchains as unable to handle real-world payments volumes.
Stablecoins Are Growing Faster Than Their Rails
The urgency behind these launches comes from scale. According to DefiLlama, the stablecoin market has grown more than 55% in a year, rising from roughly $199 billion to over $308 billion. Banks, money transmitters and fintech players — including Western Union — are experimenting with blockchain settlement, but the underlying networks weren’t originally engineered for this level of throughput.
Stable’s pitch is that the market now needs financial plumbing built for digital dollars instead of retrofitted onto general-purpose blockchains. CEO Brian Mehler says the company has spent considerable time with regulators shaping new guardrails for stablecoin systems, claiming the payment future will demand rails that look more like financial infrastructure than experimental software ecosystems.
Where StableChain fits in that future remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: stablecoins are no longer passengers in blockchain architectures — they are slowly becoming the drivers.