Crypto: Telegram has added USDT stablecoin

Messaging app Telegram announced that it has integrated stablecoin Tether (USDT) on the Tron network into its wallet function.

Telegram has integrated a new crypto: stablecoin Tether (USDT) in TRC20 format

Telegram announced that it has added a third crypto to its wallet function: the most popular stablecoin Tether (USDT) in its TRC20 version and that is powered by the Tron network.

Check this out! More access and ways to use the stablecoin you love! 🙌@telegram just announced $USDT #stablecoin payments on #TRON! 🎉

For more information about this, take a look at the article below from @decryptmedia. ⬇️https://t.co/7Pt3LiMgWl pic.twitter.com/HhTumwwrpA

— TRON DAO (@trondao) March 23, 2023

USDT travels on different blockchains such as Ethereum, EOS, Omni, Polygon, Solana and many others. But the one chosen by Telegram seems to be the TRC20 version, namely the one based on the Tron blockchain.

Not only that, USDT is also the most popular stablecoin in the crypto space. It turns out to be first in market capitalization, which currently exceeds $78 billion at the time of writing.

On that note, here is how Telegram’s announcement of the integration reads:

“You can now buy, swap, and make P2P trades with Tether USDT (TRC20). You can also directly send USDT to your friends with no transaction fees.”

USDT is the third crypto integrated into the Telegram messaging app

At the moment, through the instant messaging app Telegram, users will be able to send Bitcoin (BTC), Telegram Open Network (TON) and now Tether (USDT) to each other even if only in its Tron-based version.

And indeed, back in April 2022, The Open Network’s decentralized blockchain had added a bot wallet on the Telegram app that allowed users to exchange TON for zero fees.

Later, in October 2022, the app also managed to integrate the queen of crypto Bitcoin (BTC) to its in-app service.

And now here is the turn of stablecoin Tether (USDT) in its TRC20 version. Yet, Tether’s CTO, Paolo Ardoino, recently reported glitches found on the messaging app.

Telegram reliability when making calls is reaching bottom levels.

— Paolo Ardoino 🍐 (@paoloardoino) March 20, 2023

Tether and its leadership as other stablecoins collapse

Recently, the queen of stablecoins Tether (USDT) experienced a 10% market cap increase while the rest of the major stablecoins collapsed. 

Indeed, last week ended with Tether’s boom vs the decline of USD Coin (USDC), Binance USD (BUSD) and DAI.

Among the various reasons for Tether’s surge, it appears that there was also the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, which would have prompted investors to shift their funds from USDC, the second-largest stablecoin by market cap, to USDT.

In essence, USDC’s collapse came soon after news leaked out about the $3.3 billion out of Circle’s $40 billion in stablecoin reserves that were deposited in the troubled bank, which collapsed on 10 March 2023. BUSD has also not fared well in recent months due to orders from the SEC to suspend the issuance of new tokens.

Looking at the charts for the past week, Tether appears to be continuing its bull run in terms of market capitalization, which has risen from $75 billion to over $78 billion. In contrast, USDC is down sharply, falling from $36 billion on 17 March 2023, to the current $34 billion.

BUSD is also declining, although by a smaller proportion than USDC. In fact, the market cap of Binance USD fell from $8.26 billion to $8 billion in the week. And finally, DAI has the smallest decrease in market cap from $5.74 billion to $5.44 billion.

Among the various reasons why Tether experienced the market cap surge was the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, which allegedly prompted investors to shift their funds from USDC to USDT. 

And indeed, USDC’s loss of peg to the dollar came soon after news leaked out that $3.3 billion in stablecoin reserves were deposited in Silicon Valley Bank, which collapsed on 10 March 2023.