How to get a USDC or USDT address

Money paid through TrueTransfer goes straight into a wallet you own. Nobody holds it on the way — not us, not Telegram. That means the one thing you have to get right before anybody can pay you is the address it lands on. This page is how to get one, which network to put it on, and how to check it before any money moves.

Checked 23 September 2026. Network fees move constantly; the figures below are what a transfer typically costs, not a quoted price.

Two rules, before anything else

1. Always scan the QR code

   Never retype an address, and never trust one you copied. A scanned address cannot be mistyped, cannot be half-pasted and cannot be swapped by software watching your clipboard. Every wallet shows one and every wallet can read one.

2. Always check the address afterwards

   Even a scanned one. Read the first six characters and the last six against the screen you scanned from, glance at the middle, and send one dollar first. A payment to the wrong address cannot be recovered by us or by anyone.

What an address actually is

A wallet address is a public string that money can be sent to, like an account number that anyone may write to but only you can open. It is safe to publish. What must never leave your hands is the recovery phrase — the twelve or twenty-four words that can rebuild the wallet. Anyone with those words owns everything in it, immediately and permanently.

An address belongs to a network, not to a coin. One Polygon address can hold USDC, USDT and a dozen other things at once — but TrueTransfer pays USDC there, and USDT on TON. Sending the right coin on the wrong network is the most expensive mistake in this whole guide, and it is the one nobody can undo.

The networks, and what each costs

A stablecoin is not one thing. USDT on Tron and USDT on TON are different tokens on different networks that happen to share a name and a price. The network decides what a transfer costs, how fast it lands, and — more to the point here — whether TrueTransfer can pay you on it at all. Each of our two networks carries one coin: USDC on Polygon, USDT on TON. You do not choose the coin separately; it comes with the network.

Why only two

Every network we add is one more way for a payment to go to the wrong place. Two networks cover the two things that actually matter — the customer paying without leaving Telegram, and you cashing out wherever you live — so the list stops there.

Choosing a wallet

A wallet is just software that holds your recovery phrase and signs with it. The choice is really about where those words live: on your phone, in a browser, or on a piece of hardware that never connects to anything.

Where to keep it

Two wallets, doing two jobs. Nearly everybody who loses money kept everything in one place — and usually a place they did not control.

Not your keys, not your coins is a slogan because it keeps being true. The test is simple: can you write down the recovery phrase? If someone else holds it, they hold the money.

Wallet	Kind	Networks	Worth knowing
Telegram Wallet	phone	TON	Built into Telegram. It has two halves and the difference matters: the ordinary balance is held for you by a company, while TON Space inside it is yours, with a phrase you write down. For receiving TrueTransfer payments, use TON Space.
Tonkeeper	phone	TON	The most widely used independent TON wallet. Your phrase, your keys, iOS, Android and desktop.
MyTonWallet	phone, browser	TON	Open source, with a browser extension as well as apps.
MetaMask	phone, browser	Polygon	The default for anything Ethereum-shaped. Polygon is built in; you may need to switch the network in the menu before your USDC shows up.
Trust Wallet	phone	Polygon	Owned by Binance, which makes moving to an exchange straightforward. Holds most networks, so read the network label twice.
Rainbow	phone, browser	Polygon	Friendlier than most for a first wallet, and open source.
Coinbase Wallet	phone, browser	Polygon	Separate from a Coinbase account: this one is yours and the phrase is yours. Useful if you already cash out through Coinbase.
Ledger	hardware	Polygon, TON	The most common cold wallet. TON needs the separate TON app and a companion wallet; Polygon works through Ledger Live directly.
Trezor	hardware	Polygon	Open source down to the firmware, which is why security people like it. Check its own coin list before you buy for TON — support there is much thinner than Polygon’s and it changes.
Tangem	hardware	Polygon, TON	A card you tap against your phone rather than a device with a screen. Simple to carry; the trade-off is that you confirm on the phone, not on the card.
Keystone	hardware	Polygon	Signs by showing QR codes at your phone instead of plugging in — no cable, no Bluetooth, nothing to attack over the air.

Download only from the wallet’s own site or your phone’s app store, and check the developer name. Fake wallets are the single most effective theft on the internet: they look right, they work, and the phrase you type into them is sent somewhere else.

Getting your address

1. Install the walletFrom the official site or app store. Ignore any link sent to you in a message, including one that appears to come from us.
2. Write the recovery phrase on paperThe app shows twelve or twenty-four words once. Write them down, in order, on paper. Not a screenshot, not a note app, not a photo — those are all backed up to a cloud somewhere, and that is where phrases get stolen.
3. Check the phrase when it asksEvery good wallet makes you re-enter some of the words. Do it properly. A phrase you cannot read back is not a backup.
4. Choose the network, and the coin comes with itPolygon pays you in USDC; TON pays you in USDT. If you are unsure, take TON when most of your customers are in Telegram, and Polygon when you want the easiest path to a bank account.
5. Find ReceiveEvery wallet has it, sometimes called Deposit or a downward arrow. Choose the network there, and the wallet shows your address and a QR code for it.
6. Give the address to TrueTransfer, oncePaste it into the app under Money → Where the money goes. We check it against the network as you type and read it back to you before saving. Nothing can be sold until it is set.

Putting money into the wallet

To be paid, you need nothing in the wallet at all — an empty address receives just as well as a full one. You need a small balance only when you want to send: move your earnings on, pay a supplier, or sweep to cold storage. That is where people get stuck, so here is each route and what it costs.

None of this applies to your customers. When somebody pays your TrueTransfer link by card, a licensed provider takes the card and delivers USDC on Polygon straight to your wallet — you do not handle the card, and neither do we. Card payments are not enabled on TON; there, customers pay from a wallet.

Using the wallet without losing anything

The QR code, and why it beats typing

Every wallet will show your address as a QR code, and every wallet can scan one. Use it. A scanned address cannot be mistyped, cannot be half-pasted, and cannot be quietly swapped by software watching your clipboard. To scan: open the sending wallet, choose Send, tap the small QR or camera icon in the address box, and point it at the other screen. The address fills itself in.

Checking the address before money moves

Clipboard malware and look-alike addresses work the same way: they give you an address that begins and ends the way you expect. So check the way that actually catches it.

1. Read the first six and last sixNot four. A generated look-alike can match four at each end cheaply; six is far harder and still quick to eyeball.
2. Check the middle tooGlance at a chunk from the centre of the string. That is the part nobody bothers to forge.
3. Confirm on the hardware screenIf you use a cold wallet, the address shown on its own screen is the truth. Your computer’s screen is not — that is the whole point of the device.
4. Send a small amount firstA dollar. Wait for it to land. Then send the rest. On Polygon and TON the test costs less than a cent, and it is the only check that proves the whole path.
5. Watch for the wrong networkThe address box will often accept an address from another network without complaint. Read the network label on both sides, every time.

Checking an address for sanctions or theft

Blockchains are public, so an address carries its own history and anybody can read it. That cuts both ways: it is how you check someone before you pay them, and how they check you.

TrueTransfer screens every address against the OFAC sanctioned digital-currency address list before a request is created or a payout wallet is saved. The list refreshes daily, and if it cannot be reached at all the action is refused rather than allowed through. We do this to your own payout address too — if yours is ever flagged, you will be told rather than quietly dropped.

Polygonscan	Paste any Polygon address to see every transaction it has ever made, plus warning labels the explorer has attached.
Tonviewer	The same for TON: full history, and the names of known services.
Chainabuse	A public database of reported scam addresses, run with Chainalysis and TRM. Search an address before you send to a stranger.
OFAC SDN list	The official US sanctions list, searchable, including digital-currency addresses. The source behind most screening you will meet.

A clean history is not proof of honesty — a fresh address has no history at all. It only rules out the addresses already known to be bad.

The five ways people lose it

Common questions

Do I need to buy anything to receive money?

No. Receiving costs nothing and needs no balance. You only need a small amount of POL on Polygon, or TON on TON, when you later want to send — the network charges the sender, not the receiver.

Which should I choose, Polygon or TON?

TON pays you in USDT, Polygon pays you in USDC — the coin follows the network, so it is one decision rather than two. Take TON if your customers are in Telegram and you want them to pay without leaving it; Polygon if your priority is getting the money into a bank account with the least friction. You can add the other later.

Is the Telegram Wallet mine, or theirs?

Both, depending which part you use. The ordinary balance is held for you by a company. TON Space inside the same app is self-custodial — you write down a phrase and the keys are yours. Use TON Space for money you are paid.

Can I be paid straight to an exchange address?

You can, and many people do, but it is the weakest option. The deposit must be on the right network, some exchanges need a memo or tag that a payment from TrueTransfer does not carry, and the balance that arrives is a claim on a company rather than money you hold. Be paid into a wallet you control, then move to an exchange on the day you are cashing out.

What if I already hold USDT on Tron?

It cannot be paid to a TrueTransfer address. Move it to Polygon or TON through an exchange, or cash it out on Tron where it already is. The cash-out guide covers how, country by country.

Do I need a hardware wallet?

Not on day one, but yes before the balance grows. Take payments into a phone wallet, and sweep anything you are keeping onto hardware. The order matters: a cold wallet bought and never set up protects nothing.

What happens if I lose my phone?

Nothing, if you have the recovery phrase on paper. Install the wallet on a new phone, enter the words, and the money is there — it was never in the phone, only the key to it was.

Can TrueTransfer recover a payment sent to the wrong address?

No. Nobody can. We never hold the money, so there is nothing for us to reverse. This is why the small test payment above is worth the minute it takes.

Once the address is set

Every payment through your shop or your payment links lands there directly, with nothing in between. If you have not opened a shop yet, that is the other half of this: a page of your own inside Telegram.