Ethena Labs and TON Collide—USDe Stablecoin Charges Into Telegram’s 800M-User Jungle

DeFi’s latest power move drops as Ethena Labs locks arms with TON Foundation. The prize? Pumping its USDe synthetic dollar into Telegram’s sprawling ecosystem—because nothing says ’mass adoption’ like grafting crypto onto a messaging app that still can’t fix read receipts.

The Play
: TON’s blockchain gets a shiny new stablecoin toy, while Telegram users get another way to lose money without leaving the chat window. USDe—Ethena’s yield-bearing, delta-hedged dollar proxy—now has a runway to 800M potential users. Cue the ’this changes everything’ tweets.

The Punchline
: Another day, another crypto project betting that slapping ’Web3’ on a pre-existing platform counts as innovation. But hey—if Venmo taught us anything, it’s that people will tolerate financial products in the dumbest possible places if you make it frictionless enough.

Yield opportunities

Ethena’s integration enables support for USDe inside Telegram’s native wallet and opens the door to stable yield-generating products directly within the chat environment.

To kick off adoption, Ethena will offer an extra 10% annual percentage yield (APY) to users holding Ton Staked USDe (tsUSDe) in non-custodial wallets.

The bonus, paid weekly in TON tokens, applies to holdings of up to 10,000 tsUSDe per user. This is in addition to the base yield earned through sUSDe.

Ethena is also introducing a “USDT Earn” feature. This allows users to deposit USDT and receive interest based on USDe’s performance, bridging the gap between traditional stablecoins and higher-yield synthetic assets.

Ethena compares its approach to successful digital savings products in Asia. According to the firm, social messaging platforms like WeChat attracted hundreds of billions in user deposits by integrating yield tools into their messaging apps.

Ethena believes the TON integration offers similar potential and is enhanced by sUSDe’s stronger return profile.

Fueling TON’s DeFi ecosystem

Meanwhile, the partnership will expand beyond Telegram’s built-in wallet, and Ethena’s assets will be compatible with top TON-based non-custodial wallets, including Tonkeeper, MyTon Wallet, and TON Space.

This opens the door to a broader DeFi experience where Telegram users can save, trade, lend, and access other on-chain services through TON.

At the same time, Ethena plans to roll out payment integration with debit cards and Apple Pay by Q3. Pending regulatory approvals, Telegram users will soon be able to spend their tsUSDe rewards on real-world purchases.

The firm added that more Ethena-powered tools tailored to the TON ecosystem are also in development, to make on-chain finance as seamless as messaging.