Lending on TON
On-chain credit markets on the TON network. Users deposit assets as collateral and borrow TON, USDT, or LSTs against them. The leading protocols are EVAA and Storm Trade.
Aliases: ton lending, ton credit protocols
Lending on TON is the DeFi segment where users lend assets for yield or borrow against collateral. The sector is younger and tighter than Aave/Compound on Ethereum, but by 2024-2026 it has built a stable core of protocols.
What TON protocols offer
The baseline model is overcollateralized lending, Aave-style:
- Deposit. Users supply an asset into a protocol pool and earn interest from borrowers (often plus protocol-token emissions).
- Collateral. The same deposit can be used as collateral for a loan.
- Borrow. Users draw out another asset up to a loan-to-value (LTV) limit on their collateral.
- Liquidation. If collateral value falls or debt rises past the limit, liquidators repay part of the debt and seize collateral at a discount.
Borrow and deposit rates are set by a utilization-rate curve — the higher the share of borrowed funds in a pool, the more expensive it is for borrowers and the more attractive for depositors.
Supported assets
Unlike Ethereum protocols with dozens of assets, TON lending focuses on a narrow set:
- TON — the base network asset, the most liquid.
- USDT-jetton — native USDT on TON, the primary dollar collateral.
- LSTs (tsTON, stTON, hTON) — particularly valuable as collateral because they keep earning staking yield while securing a loan.
- Occasionally a few large ecosystem jettons.
The narrow asset list reflects TON DeFi’s relative youth and a deliberate focus on keeping risk under control.
Main protocols
- EVAA — a general-purpose money market in the Aave style. Variable rates, multi-asset positions, oriented toward retail and longer-duration borrowing.
- Storm Trade — specialized in leverage for perpetuals, but includes a lending component (borrows against TON and USDT).
See the dedicated entries for each.
Typical use cases
- Liquid staking + leverage. Deposit tsTON, borrow TON, restake. A looped position that amplifies staking yield at the cost of liquidation risk if borrow rates spike.
- Dollar liquidity against TON. Holders who do not want to sell TON but need USDT can borrow against TON collateral, keeping price exposure while accessing stables.
- Shorting via borrow. Borrow an asset, sell, wait for a fall, repay cheaper.
Risks
- Liquidation. A sharp drop in collateral price (or a strong USDT peg movement) can trigger liquidation with capital loss. Healthy LTV margins are essential.
- Smart-contract risk. TON lending protocols are younger than their Ethereum counterparts and have weathered fewer real market stress events.
- Oracle risk. Collateral pricing comes from off-chain oracles. Oracle manipulation is a non-trivial but real attack vector.
- Asset concentration. Because the main collateral assets are TON and its LSTs, a TON-specific shock propagates through the whole system at once.
Lending on TON is a foundational DeFi primitive, but it requires more careful attention to LTV and oracle risk than the mature Aave/Compound markets demand.