What is the future of Plasma after the $0.1 airdrop myth?

Deng Tong, Golden Finance

On September 25, 2025, the Bitfinex-backed Layer 1 stablecoin payment project Plasma launched its mainnet beta, integrating over 100 DeFi protocols, including Aave, Ethena, Fluid, and Euler.

Plasma set a new record by allowing investors to snag $8,390 in airdrops with just $0.10. What are the future prospects for Plasma?

1. $8,390 in XPL Airdrops with $0.10

On Thursday, the stablecoin blockchain Plasma launched its mainnet beta, simultaneously launching its native XPL token.

Every participant in Plasma's pre-ICO program received $8,390 in XPL—even if they didn't actually purchase tokens through the ICO. This news caused countless people to slap their thighs. Plasma announced that within three hours of its mainnet beta launch, half of all ICO participants had claimed their tokens. Plasma allocated a total of 25 million tokens for all pre-depositors, which will be distributed equally among all depositors, meaning that depositors will receive the same bonus regardless of whether they deposit $1 or $10,000. The Plasma token has a genesis supply of 10 billion, of which 18% (or 1.8 billion) are currently in circulation. Within Plasma's XPL token economics, 10% of the token supply was allocated for the July public sale, which ultimately oversubscribed by over $300 million. The team also reserved 40% of the token supply for ecosystem development, with 8% unlocked at launch and the remaining 25% distributed to the team and investors over a multi-year vesting period. A portion of the circulating XPL belongs to US investors. Due to regulatory factors, they will not receive XPL until July 28, 2026. This means that fewer than 1.8 billion XPL tokens have actually been traded. Since XPL was listed on major exchanges on September 25, its price has remained relatively stable, reaching a high of over $1.60 and remaining at $1.51 as of press time. Immediately after its launch, XPL immediately attracted the attention of whales. According to on-chain analyst @ai_9684xtpa, a mysterious whale holding 24.29 million XPL yesterday transferred the tokens to address 0x57d...02dd1 at 10:30 PM last night. The tokens were subsequently transferred to the Plasma mainnet via the Hyperliquid cross-chain bridge. The receiving address has not yet moved or sold the tokens, representing a value of $39.6 million.

II. Plasma's Development Prospects

1. Plasma May Be a Long-Tail Way to Access Tether

Some industry insiders believe that Plasma's valuation may still be high relative to its adoption rate. Delphi Digital analyst @simononchain noted that while Plasma has yet to see true adoption, the market is generally focused on large opportunities such as stablecoins. "The market may view Plasma as a long-tail way to access Tether, which is rapidly becoming one of the most valuable companies in the world."

Plasma is a dedicated Layer 1 blockchain for stablecoins, backed by Tether. Tether's parent company, Bitfinex, participated in its investment in Plasma, and Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino also personally participated in Plasma's financing. Tether continues to experience rapid growth. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has noted that USDT is experiencing rapid global growth. USDT on-chain transfers in the first half of 2025 increased by 120% compared to the full year of 2024, with 66% of these transactions occurring in West Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Due to the special relationship between Plasma and Tether, investing in Plasma is effectively investing in Tether. As Tether continues to grow and become stronger, investors will increasingly trust Plasma. 2. The competitive landscape Plasma faces Plasma has an ambitious mission: to transform how global money flows. As early as February of this year, Plasma raised $24 million to develop a new blockchain for Tether's USDT. However, Plasma currently faces competition from multiple rivals.

First, Ethereum remains the leader in stablecoin liquidity, while Tron, Solana, and others are also strong competitors.

Second, the stablecoin blockchain is gaining momentum, and competition is intensifying. On August 12, Circle announced the launch of Arc, an open Layer-1 blockchain designed specifically for stablecoin financial scenarios. On August 11, fintech giant Stripe partnered with crypto venture capital firm Paradigm to develop a high-performance, payment-focused Layer 1 blockchain called "Tempo." Noble, a native asset issuance chain built on the Cosmos SDK; even Google recently announced Google Cloud Universal Ledger (GCUL), a L1 focused on providing digital payments and tokenization for financial institutions. For details, click on the Jinse Finance article "Stablecoin Chain Track Heats Up: A Comprehensive Review of Giants' Layout Logic and Related Projects"

Therefore, Plasma's competitors are not only the established public chains in the crypto industry, but also the new generation of stablecoin chains and giants from traditional industries.

3. The Future of Plasma

Today, Plasma has launched its mainnet and native XPL token, introduced zero-fee USDT transfers through a custom consensus called PlasmaBFT, and has over 100 DeFi integrations. Within 24 hours of its launch, Plasma attracted over $4 billion in cryptocurrency, ranking eighth among DeFi blockchains by deposit value. This is primarily due to users earning XPL, the network's native token, by locking assets in Plasma's lending vaults and partner DeFi protocols. This morning, Plasma announced that the stablecoin supply on the Plasma chain exceeded $7 billion in two days.

Due to its speed and zero fees, exchanges, financial firms, banks, and others will be able to use Plasma as a settlement layer for large-value transactions. Banks or corporate consortiums can also run private overlays on Plasma to settle large interbank transfers with the finality backed by Bitcoin. For a company's treasury, transferring $50 million between subsidiaries could take just seconds, rather than days like with traditional SWIFT. In addition to launching on the mainnet to facilitate settlements, Plasma will also launch a new type of banking product, Plasma One. On September 22nd, Plasma announced the launch of Plasma One, the first new type of bank powered by a native stablecoin. This launch targets users in emerging markets with strong demand for US dollars, offering features such as a stablecoin-backed bank card, fee-free USDT transfers, and quick onboarding. Plasma One features the following: Earn as you Spend: Pay directly from your stablecoin balance while earning over 10% in returns; Real Rewards: Earn up to 4% cash back when using a PlasmaOne physical or virtual card; Borderless Reach: Use the card at 150 million merchants in over 150 countries; Zero-Fee USDT Transfers: Send digital dollars instantly and for free to individuals and businesses through the app; Fast Registration: Register, complete the onboarding process, and receive your virtual spending card in minutes, not days. Plasma One will fully integrate the entire Plasma ecosystem into a single application, integrating with the DeFi ecosystem, exchange integrations, and payment partners, providing pricing and liquidity, and a consistent user experience. The Plasma project's popularity was evident as early as June of this year: on June 9th, the Plasma public token sale secured $500 million in subscriptions within minutes. Over 1,100 wallets participated for the first time, with an average deposit of approximately $35,000. On June 12th, Plasma announced the lifting of the deposit cap by $500 million, bringing the total cap to $1 billion. Plasma CEO Paul Faecks once noted, "The dollar is a product, and most people in the world crave it. Stablecoins provide a fundamental, permissionless way to hold and transfer dollars anywhere." Today, Plasma has shaken the industry with the XPL airdrop and, leveraging its partnership with Tether and its position as a strong competitor in reshaping the stablecoin chain landscape, has garnered widespread investor interest. No one can predict the exciting future Plasma will open up to disrupt traditional financial payments.