EVAA for Beginners: Deposit TON, Borrow USDT (2026)

TL;DR

EVAA Protocol is the largest non-custodial money market on TON: deposit TON, borrow USDT against it. No KYC, everything inside your wallet. Mid-2026 real numbers: TON LTV around 70%, supply APR 3–5%, USDT borrow APR 10–13%. This guide walks you from “first time opening EVAA” to “borrowed your first 200 USDT” without getting liquidated on day one. And — more importantly — where to put a cushion.

What EVAA Protocol is

EVAA is a lending protocol on TON that follows the pool-based money market design (like Aave on Ethereum). The logic:

• Suppliers deposit assets into a shared pool and earn interest.
• Borrowers draw from the pool against collateral and pay interest.
• The difference between borrow APR and supply APR is the protocol spread (reserves + insurance fund + EVAA fee).

By mid-2026, EVAA supports TON, USDT, tsTON (Tonstakers liquid staking) and bemoTON. TVL hovers in the $30–50M range — second largest lending venue on TON after the Storm/DAOlama variants.

The protocol passed a CertiK audit with $1M compensation capacity. Not user insurance, but baseline code review is in place.

Why borrow on EVAA at all

If you’re new to DeFi, borrowing sounds weird: why pay interest when you can sell TON and get USDT? Three real-world scenarios:

1. You don’t want to exit TON. You believe in upside but need actual dollars. Deposit TON into EVAA, borrow USDT, spend it. If TON rallies, close the debt out of that upside and pocket the rest.

2. Leveraged staking (reverse USDT-loop). Deposit TON, borrow USDT, buy more TON with USDT, deposit again into EVAA. That’s native TON leverage. Risky, but mathematically works on the upside.

3. Short-term liquidity. Tax, exchange deposit, contractor payment. Borrow for 2–3 days at 12% APR — that’s less than $0.3/day on a $300 loan. Cheaper than selling TON with slippage and buying it back.

What does NOT work: borrowing USDT to “invest in a 15% stablecoin farm”. USDT borrow APR on EVAA is higher than USDT supply APR almost everywhere on TON — there’s no arbitrage.

Step by step: deposit TON, borrow USDT

Step 1: open EVAA and connect a wallet

Go to EVAA via the official link. Top right — Connect Wallet. Tonkeeper, MyTonWallet and Tonhub all work. If you use the Telegram-native wallet (@wallet) it connects through TON Connect, but we recommend a standalone wallet — less risk of losing access if your Telegram account gets locked.

The wallet confirmation here is just a sign-in signature — not a transaction, no gas.

Step 2: deposit (supply) TON

In the dashboard you’ll see a list of assets. Pick TON → Supply. Enter the amount (say, 100 TON). EVAA will show:

• Supply APR — what you’ll earn on this deposit (typically 3–5% for TON).
• Collateral factor — how much of this deposit counts as collateral. Around 70% for TON.
• Gas cost — usually 0.05–0.1 TON.

Confirm in the wallet. After 5–10 seconds (one TON block), your deposit appears under Supplies. Congratulations — you’re already earning supply APR.

Step 3: borrow USDT

Now — the Borrow button. Pick USDT (this is the USDT jetton on TON, issued by Tether). EVAA will calculate:

• Available limit = collateral value × LTV. For 100 TON at $3 and 70% LTV, that’s ~$210.
• Borrow APR — current USDT borrow rate (10–13% empirically in 2024–2025; mid-2026 in the same range).
• Health Factor after the action — the key safety metric (see the dedicated article).

Rule of thumb: never borrow at the max limit. If LTV gives you 210 USDT, borrow 120–140 USDT. HF stays around 1.7–1.8 and a 20% TON drawdown won’t liquidate you.

Confirm the transaction. One block later, USDT arrives in your wallet as a standard jetton — send it wherever.

Step 4: Repay and Withdraw

To exit the position:

1. Repay USDT — return the debt plus accrued interest. Borrowed 140 USDT for a month at 12%? You repay about 141.4 USDT.
2. Withdraw TON — pull collateral back.

Order matters: debt first, then collateral. If you try to withdraw TON with an open loan — EVAA will either refuse or allow partial withdrawal up to HF=1.

How interest rates work

EVAA rates are floating, driven by the utilization model:

• Utilization = (borrowed from pool) / (supplied to pool).
• The higher the utilization, the higher the borrow APR (and the higher the supply APR — suppliers get more).
• There’s a “kink” — typically at 80% utilization. Below the kink rates rise gently; above it, they spike.

In practice: if everyone borrows USDT (utilization 95%), borrow APR can jump to 18–22%. If the market cools (utilization 40%), borrow APR drops to 6–8%. Check the current rate before opening a position.

Empirical 2024–2025 on EVAA:

Risks to keep in mind

1. Smart contract risk. CertiK reduces it but doesn’t zero it out. DeFi 2020–2025 is a history of exploits. Don’t keep in EVAA more than you can lose.

2. Liquidation risk. TON price drops → HF falls below 1 → part of position is liquidated with a 5–10% penalty. Details in the Health Factor article.

3. Oracle risk. EVAA uses price oracles to value collateral. If the oracle lags or quotes a wrong price, an unfair liquidation is possible. Lower on TON than on young chains, but non-zero.

4. USDT depeg. You borrowed USDT, USDT depegs to $0.95. Your nominal debt didn’t change, but real repayment cost shrank — actually in your favour. The opposite scenario (USDT above $1) basically doesn’t happen on any horizon.

5. Telegram/wallet compromise. If an attacker gets your seed phrase, they drain collateral, max out the loan (on your risk profile) and walk away with USDT. EVAA’s not at fault — key custody is always on you.

EVAA vs DAOlama in short

DAOlama is a different class: fixed-term loans against NFT collateral. The comparison is inexact, but if you have to pick:

• EVAA — for ongoing liquid liquidity, recursive strategies, leveraged staking.
• DAOlama — if your main TON asset is an NFT (Telegram Numbers, Anonymous Numbers, expensive collections).

Most users with a “TON + USDT + LST” balance start with EVAA — it’s more universal.

Bottom line and next steps

EVAA is a working tool for people who don’t want to sell TON for liquidity. The base loop: supply TON → borrow USDT with a buffer, keep HF ≥1.5, check daily. If TON rallies, lower the debt; if it dips, add collateral. Routine, not magic.

Read next:

• EVAA Protocol: TON lending review 2026 — deep protocol breakdown.
• Health Factor in EVAA: how liquidation works — mandatory read before your first loan.
• Delta-neutral strategies: USDT-loop on TON — if you want to squeeze more out of rates.