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Telegram Bonds to Get a Blockchain Makeover—$500M, DeFi, and a Dash of Danger!

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Once upon a time, in a kingdom not so far away (unless you’ve got a really poor WiFi connection), a rather ambitious firm called Libre announced plans so bold you’d think they’d been snacking on a stash of Willy Wonka’s Whipple-Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delights. Picture this: $500 million worth of Telegram’s bonds, being magically transformed (“tokenized”—which is just a posh word for making them shiny and digital) on top of The Open Network (TON). The goal? Smushing together the stuffy old world of fixed-income securities with the wild, wild west of decentralized finance (DeFi)—where rules are made up and the points actually might matter.

DeFi Gets a Golden Ticket to Corporate Bonds

This grand experiment, cheekily christened the Telegram Bond Fund (TBF), will let institutional investors dive head-first into Telegram’s corporate debt—approximately $2.4 billion’s worth—using blockchain wizardry. No lemur needed. The fund’s special, sparkly tokenized units will wobble about on TON’s blockchain, inviting holders to frolic in TON’s DeFi playground. Libre claims buyers will fancy a go at using these bonds for collateral, joining lending and borrowing shenanigans, and squeezing out juicy yields like a cash-flavored toothpaste tube.

“What we’ve created is like a fixed income fund that acquires the bonds and then we tokenize the fund. When you purchase units in the fund these are on the TON chain, giving you access to the returns of the underlying bonds themselves. This opens up opportunities to use the bonds for collateral, ease of transfers, etc, to ultimately create utility with these financial instruments.”

— Libre CEO Avtar Sehra, probably wearing a very fancy hat

Chasing RWA Rainbows on TON

Real-world asset tokenization is hotter than Augustus Gloop in a chocolate river. The on-chain RWA market now stands at over $18.9 billion (which is, sure, a few gobstoppers more than last year’s $10 billion, according to some number wizards at RWA.xyz and The Block). Corporate bonds, so far, have been like the quiet kid at the back of the classroom—important, but no one pays much attention. Libre and the TON Foundation want to change that, dragging these yield-bearing wallflowers onto the dance floor of the TON blockchain. With Telegram’s billion-plus users up for grabs, there’s no shortage of party guests—most of whom won’t resist the DeFi canapés.

Libre isn’t new to this lunacy; they’ve already conjured over $200 million in assets for clients as mighty as BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Hamilton Lane—stretching their magic over blockchain realms like Injective, which is basically Layer 1 with Binance wearing sunglasses. Libre Chairman Jez Mohideen even hinted more funds might be lured over to TON soon, assuming they aren’t devoured by a grumpy Oompa Loompa first.

A Wallet, a Stablecoin, and a Dream

As part of their diabolical master plan, Libre will soon let folks invest in RWAs using either stablecoins or downright boring fiat, all from the cozy comfort of their TON-native wallets—fueled by their own secret-sauce system called the “Gateway.” (No golden key required!) This slick setup should make investor access as easy as pie—or at least as straightforward as getting a squirrel to sort nuts (if you ask Roald Dahl’s version).

Max Crown, CEO of TON Foundation and apparently also a MoonPay co-founder (because why have one hat when you can stack two?), hailed the TBF launch as “a major step forward,” possibly while tap dancing with excitement. It seems the race to squish traditional finance and blockchain together is on, and there are plenty of zany inventors in this chocolate factory.

So as Libre unwraps its Telegram Bond Fund (careful, there could be a golden ticket inside), the world watches to see if tokenized assets become the everlasting gobstopper of institutional finance—or just another whizzpopping experiment.

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2025-04-30 21:12

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