Tether USDT stablecoin goes live on TON blockchain

Tether stablecoin operator is strengthening ties with Telegram’s Web3 ecosystem by launching its stablecoins like Tether (USDT) on The Open Network (TON).

Tether Operations announced on April 19 the launch of its U.S. dollar-pegged Tether USDT stablecoin and the gold-pegged Tether Gold (XAUT) stablecoin on the TON blockchain.

The announcement came in conjunction with Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino and Telegram founder Pavel Durov’s keynote speeches at the crypto event Token2049 in Dubai.

At the same event, Tether also announced restructuring and introduced four new business divisions: Tether Data, Tether Finance, Tether Power and Tether Edu.

According to Ardoino, TON and Tether share the vision of an open and decentralized internet and a borderless financial system.

“The launch of USDT and XAUT on TON will allow seamless value transfer, increasing activity and liquidity while offering users a financial experience that can match those found in the traditional financial system,” the Tether CEO stated.

The new USDT-TON development marks another milestone in Tether’s expansion across multiple blockchains, bringing its coverage to 15 blockchains, including Tron and Ethereum.

The milestone is also essential for the TON network, which overtook Dogecoin (DOGE) as the ninth-largest blockchain and cryptocurrency by market value on April 16.

“The TON blockchain works with Telegram, meaning USDT and XAUT on TON have the potential to provide a simple, borderless experience for peer-to-peer payments for Telegram’s user base which Telegram estimates at over 900 million global users,” the announcement reads.

The unique thing about USDT’s launch on TON is that the TON ecosystem enables transfers between fiat and crypto and has ambitions to beat traditional finance in efficiency and ease of use, TON Foundation’s marketing head, Jack Booth, told Cointelegraph. He said:

“With built-in on-ramps for fiat at the launch and global off-ramps to bank cards and accounts coming soon. This will be the first time a mass audience will be able to use crypto infrastructure for global payments.”

USDT’s launch on the TON blockchain isn’t the first instance of the two ecosystems intersecting. Since at least 2023, USDT has been one of the default cryptocurrencies available on Wallet, a third-party custodial wallet available to Telegram users, alongside other coins like Bitcoin (BTC) and Toncoin (TON).

At the time of writing, the Tron network is the default blockchain available for USDT on Wallet, enabling TRC-20 USDT. According to Halil Mirakhmed, chief operating officer of Wallet in Telegram, TON-based USDT will become another option on Wallet, while TRC20 USDT will stay.

The Tron blockchain accounts for the biggest share of issued USDT at the time of the announcement, according to data from Tether transparency.

The news comes a few weeks after Tether launched a recovery tool allowing users to migrate USDT between different blockchains in March 2024. Previously, Tether’s USDT stablecoin crossed an all-time high market cap of $100 billion on March 4.

Additional reporting by Felix Ng.

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