In April 2024, TON launched native USDt on The Open Network. USDt on TON has achieved a circulation of 729.9 million in just five months, making it the fastest growing launch in Tether’s history. This launch represents a significant step towards the mass adoption of Web3 peer-to-peer payments, providing a seamless experience to Telegram’s 950 million users.

Continuing on this initial success, TON is excited to announce the launch of a new 5 million Toncoin DeFi incentive program. This new initiative is part of a larger effort to bolster adoption of USDt-TON and drive deeper liquidity for TON’s DeFi ecosystem. Decentralized exchanges STON.fi and DeDust, in addition to liquid staking protocols Tonstakers and Bemo, will lead the way in implementing the new incentive program for the TON community.

STON.fi and DeDust provide users access to a wide range of token trading pairs as essential bases for liquidity within the TON ecosystem. Tonstakers and Bemo offer innovative liquid staking solutions, enabling users to easily take advantage of advanced DeFi farming strategies.

The incentive program's initial phase will focus on rewarding liquidity providers in TON/USDt, stTON/USDt, and tsTON/USDt pools on STON.fi and DeDust.

Guide to farming the DeFi incentive program

The new incentive program helps users earn rewards by providing liquidity within the TON ecosystem. This guide will outline how to maximize these rewards through liquid staking farming strategies.

In case you're unfamiliar with staking, here’s a breakdown of common terms used in DeFi farming strategies:

1. Liquidity Pools: A shared pool of tokens anyone can access. When you contribute liquidity to these pools in the form of tokens like TON or USDt-TON, you're helping others trade easily. In return, you receive a small fee each time a trade is made in the pool.

2. Liquid Staking Derivatives (LSD): Liquid Staking Derivatives (LSD) refer to a process where users stake their tokens with staking platforms such as TonStakers and Bemo. When users, for example, stake Toncoin, they receive LSD like stTON (Bemo) or tsTON (TonStakers) in return. These derivative tokens represent the staked TON. Holders of stTON or tsTON can use these tokens to farm even more rewards within the TON ecosystem. Learn more about TON Liquid Staking here.

The 5M Toncoin DeFi Incentive Program involves staking Toncoin via Tonstakers and Bemo and providing these derivatives as liquidity to stTON/USDt and ts/TON/USDt pools on Dedust and StonFi.

In short, by participating in each of these activities—staking your tokens in LSD protocols, and providing LSD as liquidity—you can earn multiple types of rewards during the incentive program.

Let’s now discuss the types of rewards you can earn.

1. DEX Trading Fees: Users who add liquidity to pools earn a share of the trading fees.

2. Staking Rewards: Users who stake their TON via Tonstakers or Bemo will receive rewards.

3. Toncoin Incentives: Additional TON rewards will be provided to users who provide liquidity to stTON/USDt and tsTON/USDt pools with LSD. Rewards will also continue for TON/USDt pool liquidity providers.

In its initial phase, the incentive program will reward liquidity providers in the following liquidity pools on STON.fi and DeDust:

• TON + USDT
• tsTON + USDT (STON.fi and DeDust)
• stTON + USDT (STON.fi and DeDust)

Access more trading pairs and liquidity pools with TON's USDt integration

With the participation of major DeFi protocols, this new incentive program will strengthen liquidity in the TON ecosystem. This program will bring several benefits to the TON Ecosystem and its users, including:

• Increased liquidity for USDt that strengthens the TON ecosystem and its constituent DeFi protocols.

• Additional arbitrage opportunities on-chain

• Growth of Average APR and Volume on-chain

• Increased chain security by staking for validators

In addition to trading opportunities, TON users will also reap the benefits of USDt's wider adoption and integration within the ecosystem.

Strengthening USDt on TON means users have a reliable and deeply liquid stablecoin to utilize across various TON DeFi protocols. Beyond ecosystem benefits, the more than 1M USDt-TON holders will benefit, as USDt-TON continues to represent stable value and ease of transfer.

Expanding incentives for the TON DeFi Ecosystem

Following the 5M Toncoin incentive program, TON Foundation may launch additional incentive programs for lending, perpetual DEXs, and other DeFi protocols to expand yield farming strategies available on TON.

This program underscores TON’s dedication to ecosystem growth. These token incentives will benefit existing users and attract new ones, leading to the continued exceptional growth of the TON ecosystem.