Telegram Gets Its First Native DeFi Lending App With Affluent Launch

Affluent, a mini app built on The Open Network (TON), is bringing decentralized finance directly into Telegram’s messaging ecosystem.

Key Takeaways:

• Affluent has launched as Telegram’s first native DeFi app, offering lending and yield strategies on TON.
• The project targets both retail savers and institutional liquidity providers within Telegram’s vast user base.
• A new points program aims to boost engagement, starting with deposits into the TON multiply vault.

The project officially launched Monday, offering users lending pools and crypto yield strategies in a streamlined format designed to function within the Telegram interface, the project said on X.

Co-founded by Justin Hyun, a former director of the TON Foundation, and Hyung Lee of DeFi R&D group B-Harvest, Affluent aims to transform Telegram into a financial super app.

The project promises to simplify crypto savings for retail users while offering deep liquidity access for institutional players.

Affluent aims to “bring real, trustless asset management to Telegram’s billion-user ecosystem,” the project said on X, positioning the app as a “smart bank for crypto.”

The strategy mirrors the success of super apps like WeChat, which seamlessly blend messaging, payments, and financial services in a single user environment.

By embedding DeFi functionality directly into a platform with over 900 million users, Affluent sidesteps many of the usability challenges that have long hampered broader DeFi adoption.

Telegram users will now be able to access lending and yield products without leaving the app.

“Affluent is launching a points program to incentivize users for various activities. The first action is to deposit into the TON multiply vault,” the project said.

6/ What’s next?

• USDT Multiply Vault: Stablecoin denominate delta-neutral engine for risk-adjusted yield
• Strategy Vaults composable with BTC, Gold, U.S. Treasury, Tokenized Private Credit
• Payment from your vault: Collateralization and payment from your vault tokens
•…

Although Telegram distanced itself from TON after regulatory issues forced it to shelve its original blockchain ambitions in 2020, the platform formally backed TON in September 2023.

That endorsement has since accelerated development across the ecosystem, with Affluent now marking a notable step forward in integrating DeFi into Telegram’s daily user experience.

In May, Telegram took down thousands of channels tied to the Chinese-language marketplaces Xinbi Guarantee and Huione Guarantee after a report by blockchain analytics firm Elliptic exposed their role in over $35 billion worth of illicit transactions, largely using Tether (USDT).

Xinbi alone has seen at least $8.4 billion in USDT since 2022, while Huione accounts for at least $27 billion, offering services ranging from fake IDs to money laundering.

These marketplaces operate openly within Telegram’s group infrastructure, connecting vendors and buyers for illegal goods and services.

Huione, reportedly linked to Cambodia’s ruling elite, sells everything from personal data to intimidation-for-hire services.

Xinbi, with over 233,000 users, offers services in categories like crypto laundering, forged documents, SIM cards, and access to stolen databases.

The platforms have become a go-to for laundering proceeds from pig butchering scams, which are frauds that combine romance or investment lures to steal large sums in crypto.

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