November Update

This update was first published by our COO here.

It’s been seven weeks since Plasma mainnet went live. Since launch, we’ve strengthened the network, improved how we operate, and built the foundation for the next stage of growth. This update highlights the progress we’ve made and what comes next.

Strengthening the Core Chain

We built Plasma from ideation to production in under 12 months, an ambitious goal we set for ourselves and reached. That speed required tradeoffs, not to security, but to maintainability, performance, and scalability. Since mainnet launch our focus has been on strengthening those foundations and putting the codebase in the best position for long-term growth.

Our engineering work has centered on creating a lean, maintainable, and extensible core that can support everything we build going forward. Key improvements since launch include:

• Refactored the codebase into a hexagonal architecture, making it easier to extend, audit, and contribute to

• Expanded testing and automation to harden reliability, remove human error, and ensure stability at scale

• Increased backend diversity across regions, providers, and software versions to prevent correlated failures

• Added data compression for all information in flight to improve performance and efficiency

• Enhanced snapshotting and synchronization so new non-validator nodes can onboard faster

• Rebuilt the peer discovery layer to remove whitelisting and enable open data access beginning early next year

• Developed APIs for zero-fee USDT transfers so any wallet or exchange can integrate the feature directly

• Built new dashboards and visualizations to provide more transparency into onchain activity, launching publicly soon

• Improved the mobile experience for the mainnet dashboard so users can monitor and interact with the network from any device

Together, these improvements make the chain faster, more resilient, and easier to build on. They form the technical base for what comes next.

Building the Backbone of Plasma One

Demand for stable currencies like the US dollar continues to grow. People want a safe place to hold their money and a simple way to spend it in their daily life. Today no product offers both reliably at scale.

Plasma One is designed to meet that need by giving users direct access to dollars in full self custody, with the lowest possible fees and a clean, reliable banking experience for both consumers and businesses.

To make this real, we needed the underlying systems to be right. That foundation is the payments backend and the wallet architecture. These systems determine how much users pay, how safe their balances are, how reliable the product feels, and how quickly we can expand across markets. No product in this space has solved both well, and this has been our main focus over the past two months.

Payments Backend

We are building the payments infrastructure ourselves instead of relying fully on a single provider. This gives us more control over fees, coverage, and reliability. Over the past two months we have:

• Designed a modular system that lets us integrate and switch providers by region

• Built a shared KYC module that powers card issuing, on and off ramps, and virtual accounts from one verified identity

• Created a flexible card issuing module that lets us work with multiple issuers and optimize programs based on usage

• Developed the core ledger that powers balances, spending, and authorizations with full auditability and fast performance

This foundation lets us scale globally, keep fees low, deliver a reliable experience, and avoid dependency on any single provider.

Compliance Foundation

We built the right compliance structure early. We acquired a VASP licensed entity in Italy, opened a Netherlands office, and hired senior compliance leadership. This work directly improves the product. It lets us work with better partners, offer more local payment options, reduce fees, improve onboarding, and serve more markets over time.

Wallet Architecture

We have been designing a system that stays fully self custodial without compromising usability. Most products either remove self custody by adding a cosigner on the backend or force users to top up a separate balance before spending, which hurts the experience. We are not taking either path. Our approach keeps users in full control of their assets while still allowing seamless spending, which creates harder engineering problems that we are solving now.

We have been working with leading teams across the stack to design and implement this architecture. It prevents double spend, scales cleanly from individuals to businesses, and maintains a simple experience for the user. The system is already prototyped and is going through internal testing.

There is still a lot to build. We are moving with urgency, but we are not rushing Plasma One to market. The goal is to launch with the right foundation so that once the product is live we can ship the right features quickly and improve it every week. Plasma One will open gradually in a private beta, and we will learn directly from users as we refine and expand the product.

Continuing to Expand Through the Right Partnerships

To make stablecoins truly global, the infrastructure alone isn’t enough. They must connect to the systems people and businesses already use. Our focus externally has been on expanding those connections and building partnerships that make Plasma more useful to real people and businesses.

We will announce these partnerships over the coming weeks and months. While we cannot share everything yet, we can share the three main priorities so far:

Payment infrastructure: We partnered with two of the leading orchestration providers in the industry. These integrations let us onboard products and partners at scale and begin working with the largest PSPs, fintechs, and traditional financial institutions that were previously out of reach.

Exchanges and market makers: Expanding Plasma USDT integrations across global and regional exchanges has been a major focus. We’ve added more than ten new integrations, including several of the largest globally and regionally, particularly in markets where local currency-to-stablecoin arbitrage drives flow. On almost all of these exchanges, Plasma now offers the lowest-cost USDT deposits and withdrawals, which gives market makers and traders a clear advantage. This has created a flywheel: each integration brings more partners, unlocks more local infrastructure, and deepens liquidity across markets.

DeFi: Our incentive programs helped bootstrap billions in stablecoin supply and make lending markets active. We’ve since refined them to focus only on the highest-impact protocols. Incentives are now smaller, more data-driven, and directed toward partners that deepen real liquidity and stablecoin utility.

Putting Our Organization in a Position for Long-Term Success

Before mainnet, the entire company was focused on one goal: getting the chain live. That clarity shaped everything we did. In the months leading up to launch, we brought in exceptional new talent and grew rapidly to around 40 people.

With mainnet live, our focus naturally shifted. We introduced a new product at the core of our long-term vision and began scaling the company for what comes next. That growth brought new challenges. Teams needed clearer priorities, new hires needed better context, and our structure needed to evolve to match our ambitions.

Over the past two months, we’ve taken deliberate steps to strengthen how we operate. The single engineering team that had been building the blockchain, infrastructure, and products was split into two: one focused on the Chain and one on Plasma One. This reduced context switching and improved velocity immediately.

We invested heavily in clear processes and documentation and made several important personnel decisions. The team was strengthened further by bringing in an exceptional engineering lead to unify Plasma One.

It’s clear that our best work happens when the team can think together and move quickly in the same room. We are leaning fully into that. Going forward, every new hire will be based in our London headquarters, and we will operate around a strong in-office presence. More of our senior team members are relocating to London as well, and we are expanding our space to support that shift.

What’s Next

The work over the past two months has put us in a stronger position to execute with more speed and clarity. Strengthening the core chain and building the right partnerships puts Plasma in position to become the most reliable place to move stablecoins at scale. Plasma One will build on this foundation by making stablecoins useful for everyday spending and saving for people and businesses around the world.

The next stage is focused on solving the harder problems of connecting stablecoins with the existing financial system. This requires deep work across product, engineering, compliance, and partnerships, and the entire company is aligned around that goal.

Expect to see more of our work shared in public at a faster cadence. We want everyone to see what we’re building in real time.