Low Yield on TON

Growth and Limitations of USDT Activity on TON

Since the launch of native USDT on TON in April 2024, the TON Foundation has introduced several incentive programs:

• 11 million TON in early-stage rewards

• An additional 5 million TON announced in September 2024 to boost stablecoin trading on DEXs

These incentives temporarily boosted activity:

• Over 50,000 wallets participated in daily USDT transfers during the peak from September to October 2024.

However, once the incentives ended:

• User activity dropped sharply

• The number of wallets fell by over 50% from peak levels

This highlights that USDT activity on TON remains heavily reliant on external incentives, lacking sustainable yield mechanisms or practical use cases.

Competitive Disadvantage in Native Yield

TON’s yield offerings are significantly lower than those on other blockchains, making it hard to retain users long-term. Between Feb 12 and May 12, 2025, the average APY for USDT on major lending protocols was:

Blockchain	Protocol	Avg. APY	vs. EVAA
TON	EVAA	3.48%	-
Ethereum	Fluid	7.58%	2.18x
Ethereum	Morpho	4.90%	1.41x
Aptos	Aries	8.99%	2.58x
SUI	NAVI	6.26%	1.80x

Figure 1: Daily APY Trends of Lending Protocols (Feb 12 – May 12, 2025). Data retrieved from EVAA and Morpho frontend endpoints; Fluid, Aries, and NAVI via OKX Web3 Data Portal.

In addition, TON’s DeFi total value locked (TVL) is currently around $167 million, a sharp contrast to Sui, which launched in a similar timeframe and has reached nearly $2 billion in TVL.

TON’s stablecoin market cap is also relatively modest at $100 million, compared to:

• Ethereum: $12.2 billion

• Tron: $7 billion

• Solana: $1.2 billion

These figures highlight that while TON currently lags behind in DeFi scale, it still holds substantial room for growth in the stablecoin sector. To unlock this potential, TON must overcome a compounding cycle: low yield → low user engagement → low liquidity.

However, with Telegram’s massive user base and native integration potential, TON presents asymmetric upside—especially once the current yield limitations are addressed.