Onstage at Token 2049 in Dubai, the CEOs of Tether and Telegram jointly announced on Friday that USDT—the largest stablecoin in the world—will launch on the The Open Network (TON) and the Wallet bot on Telegram, in a bid to both expand Telegram’s crypto presence and accelerate the growth of the TON blockchain in its own right.
“The launch of USDT on TON will allow seamless value transfer globally in a simple experience that can match even the traditional financial system,” Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said. “This furthers our mission of powering open financial infrastructure across the blockchain space.”
TON Price Pumps After Telegram Says It Will Share Ad Revenue via Crypto
Telegram, the privacy-focused online messaging platform, announced Wednesday that it will begin splitting ad revenue with creators with payouts exclusively in Toncoin (TON). Within moments, the price of TON—a project that was initially developed within Telegram before being continued independently—spiked a whopping 31% to a high not seen in over two years. Beginning Friday, Telegram channel owners—individuals or organizations that post messages to dedicated one-way feeds that any subscriber can...
Telegram, the privacy-focused messaging app, currently boasts over 900 million monthly active users, according to the company. In recent months it has embraced TON—a blockchain first developed by Telegram before being continued independently—by integrating Toncoin, TON’s native token, into Telegram’s ad buy and revenue sharing programs.
Now, TON’s leadership says, the blockchain network will be able to expand at a much quicker place, with the backing of one of crypto’s sturdiest assets.
TON’s Justin Hyun Breaks Down The Importance of USDT Coming to Telegram
At Token 2049 in Dubai, The Open Network’s director of investments sat down with Decrypt’s Sander Lutz to discuss what he sees as the game-changing integration of USDT onto TON, and his plans for getting Telegram’s 900 million users to start using crypto in the immediate future.
“We really anticipate this being a catalyst for non-crypto people to come into crypto for the first time, and for Telegram mini-apps to really proliferate,” Justin Hyun, the TON Foundation’s Director of Investments, told Decrypt. “We’re ready to go to battle and say, ‘Come and build on TON,’ now that there’s Tether.”
Because USDT’s value is pegged to the US dollar, Hyun elaborated, users less experienced with the volatility of crypto assets like Toncoin will now be able to complete transactions on-chain without worrying about whether funds will shift in value over the course of weeks or months.
Telegram Gets a Crypto Wallet—3 Years After SEC Pumped the Brakes
The Open Network Foundation (TON Foundation) announced Wednesday that messaging app Telegram will add a self-custodial crypto wallet for the chat platform’s users, taking The Open Network (TON) closer to its spiritual roots. The TON Foundation said that a self-custodial digital wallet, TON Space, has launched on Telegram and is now available to the chat platform’s approximately 800 million users. In addition, the Foundation said that projects built on TON will get priority access to the messagin...
The wallet bot on Telegram, which launched in September after years of legal headaches, allows users of the app to manage TON-based digital assets with both custodial and self-custodial options—while remaining in the messaging app.
In recent months, Toncoin has more than tripled in value, off the news of Telegram’s integrations of the token, and the upstart success of Notcoin, a Telegram-based game that allows players to accumulate in-game currency. Notcoin is set to launch its hotly anticipated airdrop by the end of the month.
Edited by Stacy Elliott.
