Original Title: Plasma: More Than a Stablecoin Play
Original Author: Sam, Messari Analyst
Original Translation: Tim, PANews
PANews Editor's Note: With Circle's successful IPO and impressive market performance, interest in stablecoins is gradually rising. The Tether-backed stablecoin chain Plasma completed its ICO last night, with a $500 million allocation being "snapped up" within minutes. Plasma is primarily labeled as a stablecoin, yet the market knows little about its technical architecture and functional characteristics. This article aims to fill that "cognitive gap." The main text is as follows:
A Sneak Peek
· Plasma is not just a stablecoin chain; it is also a Bitcoin sidechain and a privacy solution.
· Tether is likely to launch native USDT on the Plasma chain, enabling low-slippage exchanges of Bitcoin and minimizing trust in Bitcoin-collateralized stablecoin lending, which will be key to unlocking new demand in BTCFi.
· Similar to the Circle payment network, Plasma serves as a payment network for banking partners and custodians, supporting the fiat withdrawal channels for USDT.
Plasma is often simplistically understood as a "stablecoin chain." This understanding is not incorrect, but it misses the point. What Plasma is truly building is a financial infrastructure layer specifically designed for Bitcoin, which not only supports stablecoins but considers them as the underlying foundation. It is a Bitcoin sidechain that provides native USDT support, protocol-level privacy protection, and its Gas model does not require users to hold volatile governance tokens. This is not just about payment functionality; it aims to create a native settlement layer for Bitcoin that is dollar-denominated.
The project is supported by Peter Thiel and Paolo Ardoino under Tether and Bitfinex, integrating three emerging technological trends: Bitcoin Rollup technology, stablecoin infrastructure, and on-chain privacy protection. Each concept has investment value on its own, and their combination is more likely to build the most valuable financial infrastructure layer in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Plasma is a Bitcoin sidechain, not limited to stablecoin applications
Plasma's architecture uses Bitcoin as its ultimate settlement layer. The chain functions as both a Layer 2 and a sidechain, periodically anchoring state commitments to the Bitcoin blockchain, reducing trust dependency assumptions, and inheriting Bitcoin's security model.
The Plasma chain technology is likely to lead a new wave in BTCFi, as it unlocks the functionalities that users truly desire: exchanging large amounts of Bitcoin with extremely low slippage and directly staking native Bitcoin to borrow stablecoins. This seemingly basic demand actually requires two core supports: deep liquidity (supported by Tether) and a trust-minimized mechanism (supported by BitVM2).
With Tether's direct backing, Plasma gains access to one of the deepest liquidity asset pools in the crypto world. The platform is likely to natively support USDT, giving it an advantage over Bitcoin sidechains that rely on cross-chain stablecoins or new native stablecoins. It will essentially become the core settlement layer for BTC/USDT trading, a functionality that the current Bitcoin mainnet itself lacks.
Unlike other Layer 2 and sidechains that require wrapping Bitcoin or custodial bridges, Plasma has built a dedicated Bitcoin cross-chain bridge that operates through a permissionless validator mechanism and promises to adopt this solution after BitVM2 goes live. This will enable more seamless user access while effectively reducing counterparty risk.
Built-in Privacy Features
Privacy protection is directly integrated into Plasma's transaction model. Users can opt to join the shielded transfer feature, which can hide the transaction parties and amount information without sacrificing interoperability and user experience. Unlike ZK privacy solutions (such as ZCash, Aztec) that require specialized tools or browser extensions, Plasma's privacy model achieves application layer compatibility by introducing basic account abstraction elements, making the user experience closer to banking services rather than just another EVM chain.
This design supports selective disclosure, allowing users to prove specific transaction details when needed (for example, to exchanges, auditors, or compliance platforms) without exposing all on-chain activities. This privacy system ensures individual control while achieving interoperability with regulatory frameworks.
Crucially, Plasma's technology allows users to trade without holding or using volatile native tokens. Gas fees can be paid directly in USDT or BTC, with these payments automatically converted through an oracle mechanism or internal pricing system. This design not only simplifies the user experience but also eliminates the transaction traceability risks associated with purchasing and consuming native tokens, making Plasma an ideal choice for users seeking low-friction, discreet financial operations while maintaining excellent usability and privacy protection.
Stablecoin Perspective
The core point to understand is that Plasma represents the most direct investment in Tether. Traditionally, Tether has been merely a liquidity layer across various platforms, while Plasma is positioned as a vertically integrated execution environment where USDT is no longer just one of many assets but exists as a native component of the chain.
This brings two potential avenues for value appreciation. The first is market-driven; as demand for stablecoins grows (especially among global users seeking dollar exposure), USDT-based products may experience strong foundational pull. Coupled with Circle's IPO refocusing the market on stablecoins, assets linked to Tether's infrastructure are expected to benefit from the rising market enthusiasm.
The second point is structural advantage. Plasma can connect financial institutions with compliant global payment systems. This is similar to the Circle payment network but serves the Tether ecosystem. The system will have complete anti-money laundering capabilities to support enterprise onboarding, facilitating fiat exchange channels through integration with banking partners and custodians, while still supporting permissionless DeFi applications. With near real-time and low-cost international settlement capabilities, Plasma can compete with traditional banking networks. Considering that USDT's circulation is nearly 2.5 times that of USDC, and depending on the valuation of Circle's payment network, I believe that the institutional demand generated solely from payment network functionality is sufficient to support a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $500 million.
The financial layer built on Bitcoin, Plasma, is initiated with liquidity provided by Tether and enhanced through native privacy features, achieving goals that other cryptocurrency projects find difficult to reach.
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