Your blockchain: crypto volumes and TVL growing after onboarding of stablecoin Tether (USDT)

Following the partnership between Tether and The Open Network (TON) that brought the USDT stablecoin into the blockchain managed by the Durov brothers, Pavel and Nikolai, strong increases in the TVL of the chain have been recorded as well as an increase in crypto trading volumes.

The strong incentives provided by the Ton Foundation to support the onboarding of new users on the network likely represent the main cause of the increase in on-chain metrics.

Let’s see everything in detail below by comparing it with other networks like Ethereum and Solana.

The stablecoin Tether (USDT) lands on the Ton blockchain: great incentives for the Telegram crypto community

On April 19th at the crypto event Token2049 in Dubai, a strategic partnership was revealed between the Durov brothers, founders of the blockchain The Open Network (TON), and Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, the company that governs the stablecoin USDT.

The collaboration is aimed at introducing USDT natively on Ton, offering the 900 million Telegram users the possibility to exchange the crypto still tied to the US dollar, the largest in terms of capitalization with 108 billion coins minted.

Specifically, the plan involves issuing 60 million USDT in this first phase on Ton, making it the 11th cryptographic infrastructure by presence of the stablecoin.

Yesterday Paolo Ardoino revealed on his X profile that he has already provided an entry of 35 million dollars on the network.

The news also brings with it some strong economic incentives offered by the Ton Foundation, which aims to bring new users to its blockchain pushing for the adoption of cryptocurrencies.

Actually, 11 million TON tokens have been allocated, which will be distributed to USDT holders on the Telegram Open Network.

Of these, 5 million TON will be delivered as yield to users who have USDT in their Telegram wallets and 5 million TON will be used to increase rewards for liquidity providers on DeFi platforms like Ston.fi and Dedust.

Finally, 1.2 million TON will provide free withdrawals from the main centralized exchanges to the TON network.

Do you think that at the moment on the official Telegram wallet, inside the “Earn” section, there is a product that offers 50% APY in TON for those who deposit the stablecoin in question.

Furthermore, the Telegram team currently offers one of the lowest commission rates in circulation to exchange Tether cryptocurrency, amounting to $0.10 per transfer.

Paolo Ardoino, enthusiast of the integration with Ton, commented on the news of the implementation of USDT at the Dubai event in this way:

“This promotes our mission to empower an open financial infrastructure in the blockchain space.”

Volumes, TVL and crypto inflow: on-chain metrics highlighted on Ton after the introduction of USDT

The onboarding of the USDT stablecoin within the Ton crypto network and the great incentives proposed for the community have created the necessary conditions to boost the on-chain metrics of the network, which were already on the rise in recent weeks.

According to the data from DefilLama, we can indeed see how the total funds locked on the Telegram blockchain have exceeded the threshold of 150 million dollars, positioning the chain in 33rd place in the ranking of the most “wealthy” infrastructures.

From March to now, the TVL has increased by about 7 times.

DeFilLama probably hasn’t yet quoted the increase in USDT capital: considering the estimated inflow of 60 million, Ton would reach a TVL of 214 million dollars, rising to 27th place in the ranking.

Also worth mentioning is the increase in liquidity in the DEX of the blockchain, with the arrival of over 1 million dollars between TON, ETH, and USDT.

Even crypto trading volumes have seen a significant growth recently: according to the data from Dune Analytics on bridged volumes (inflow and outflow on the network) from Ethereum to Ton, and vice versa, we see a peak of activity in the last two weeks.

Overall, the netflow since the mainnet launch of the network is positive for $9.29 million. Many of the funds on Ton have been injected directly by the Ton Foundation, without going through the Ethereum blockchain.

Turning instead to the trading volumes of the TON crypto on DEX, we can report a significant surge in trading on the network from the beginning of March onwards.

Think that about ⅓ of the cumulative volumes recorded, with a total amounting to 250 million dollars, was traded only in the last 53 days.

TON purchases have outweighed sales, which have only recently been felt in conjunction with the general market correction.

The net trading volume on TON is positive by over 8.8 million dollars.

The comparison with other blockchains: Ethereum and Solana

While the Ton network embraces the native entrance of the USDT stablecoin and explores solutions for onboarding new users, the more mature blockchains Ethereum and Solana present a completely different context.

Ethereum, which ranks as the top TVL infrastructure, with over $52.7 billion in crypto locked inside according to DefilLama, has not seen any significant inflows since March.

The recent growth phase of Vitalik Buterin’s chain has occurred from October 2023 onwards until March, bringing in over 30 billion dollars.

On the volume front, according to what reported by The Block, in the last 2 months the network has recorded an overall increasing activity.

As with TVL, from October to March there was a peak in activity that led volumes to triple, only to drop by 50% in the last 2 months.

It seems that part of the market’s attention has shifted away from Ethereum in recent weeks to make room for new alternatives like Ton.

For Solana the situation seems significantly different: in the face of a TVL that has skyrocketed upwards since November 2023, registering an increase of 10X going from 400 million dollars to 4 billion, we notice a decrease in activity since the beginning of April.

In the midst of the retracement of the main cryptocurrencies on the market, even the TVL in Solana’s ecosystem has experienced a sharp decline, losing $800 million in just a few days.

The volume discourse is much more complex because, according to what is reported by The Block, between March 2 and April 8 there was a real bubble in trading activities.

During this time frame we have witnessed crazy trading volumes, which obviously also include numerous wash trading operations, introduced in the midst of the memecoin mania.

The emergence of numerous memecoins on Solana and their strong competition has created the conditions to push the volumes of the chain to levels never seen before in the cryptographic landscape.

Now the bubble has burst, but the volumes remain daily (weekly average) are still much higher than those of Ethereum.