Web3 Shopping Giant Uquid Pushes USDT on TON

At the end of June, the world’s biggest stablecoin issuer, Tether, entered into collaboration with Uquid, a Web3 E-commerce platform. Simultaneously, Uquid ‘invited’ Tether’s new partner, the Telegram-associated TON network, into its ecosystem.

The USDT on TON has been available on Uquid since May 2024. Last month, Filipinos were given the option to pay their social contributions in Tether on The Open Network blockchain via Uquid. The new method promises lower fees and faster transactions for 42 million of the system members.

Later in June, Tether and Uquid launched a 1 USDT store aiming to "demonstrate the practical use of USDT in everyday transactions and digital commerce, leveraging De-Fi technology and blockchain infrastructure to enhance the crypto micropayments."

Less reported but perhaps more significant integrations include allowing logging into the platform with Telegram, TON Connect Uquid’s shopping bots, and order notifications in the messenger. Currently, TON and USDT on TON are placed at the top of the payment options list, unobtrusively promoting the duo among the platform users. The options are even ahead of leading payment methods like Binance Pay and USDT on TRC-20.

The UK-headquartered Uquid, founded in 2016 by Tran Hung, is a shopping infrastructure that merges DeFi, Web3 features, and e-commerce. The ‘Shop-to-Earn experience’ is an alternative to typical cashback and bonuses. Uquid even suggests 'shopping mining,' where coins are generated as users buy items. The company also offers its native UQC token, Payin3 installments solution ('buy now, pay later' in crypto), online bill payment, exchange services, and more.

The platform currently lists over 160 million physical, digital, and NFT products and features various dApps, while a large share of its products are gift and game cards, top-ups, and prepaid cards. Polls show that for many users, this is a comfortable way to cash out crypto. The goods can be purchased with a wide range of digital currencies through a variety of payment options, making the platform one of the leading crypto use cases.

Uquid stated in a 2023 report that Binance Pay is the most used payment method, while USDT is the most popular stablecoin option among its users. TRC-20 and BEP-20-based USDT used to be indisputable leaders, jointly constituting 85% of all USDT crypto-shopping transactions on the platform. We expect that if Tether and TON continue along the same lines, they might gain a noticeable share of the market this year.

Uquid outlines TON’s fast and cheap transactions, scalability, and security, but we think the most attractive feature is its close connection with Telegram and its huge user base. 

Earlier, we observed that Tether and TON are jointly pursuing a strategy to boost USDT on TON adoption. All the major exchanges have already integrated the token, but according to the duo’s “ambitious plans to put USDT-TON in every pocket,” more integrations are ahead. Accessing the Uquid’s 2.5 million users in over 180 countries is an important milestone for the coin adoption, but the shopping platform will benefit no less: Telegram bots are gaining momentum and can bring many more customers [with already connected wallets that - conveniently - support USDT on TON].

Tether’s USDT and its gold-backed XAUT tokens went live on TON this April. The net circulation of USDT on the blockchain has been steadily growing ever since. As the industry is closely watching the TON ecosystem surge, the price of its native token, TON coin, is approaching its ATH due to institutional and retail demand. At the moment of writing, it was trading at $8.