Public Chain Positioning
As the cornerstone of the crypto ecosystem, public chains have always been the focus of attention. Whether it is a Layer 1 or Layer 2 public chain, the pursuit of high performance is important, but more importantly, having real active users and a rich application scene.
TON (The Open Network), as the official public chain supported by Telegram, has created a unique narrative based on Telegram’s massive 900 million monthly active users. It has built a unique narrative in areas such as payments, social networking, and mini-applications.
Without increasing user migration costs, TON can rebuild the Web2 business model in a Web3 way by leveraging Telegram’s existing social network.
Although Telegram is already an important base for crypto users, the popularity of the TON chain among these users is still lacking. Many Alpha Telegram groups require NFTs as tickets, but these NFTs are not based on TON’s Jetton. Trading robots like Unibot and Banana Gun have made Telegram more popular among crypto users, but a large number of transactions still occur on Base or Solana rather than TON.
The TON team and TON Foundation are actively working to overcome existing barriers and unleash the full potential of TON. By allowing a large number of real users to directly own crypto wallets, users can easily make encrypted transfers, similar to sending WeChat red envelopes. Combined with Mini Apps similar to WeChat, TON has the potential to bring true mass adoption to the crypto industry.
Ecological Status
According to Defillama data, TON’s TVL is currently $310 million, ranking 25th among all public chains. Thanks to the joint and coordinated efforts of the TON Foundation, Telegram, and its partners, the on-chain ecosystem has experienced explosive growth in the past two months.
At the end of March, the TON Foundation announced the distribution of 30 million $TON as liquidity incentives within one month. In April, Tether announced the integration of USDT directly into TON, allowing for minting and redemption.
These consecutive stimuli have rapidly increased TON’s TVL from $22 million in early March to the current $300 million in less than three months, achieving nearly 15 times growth in TVL in a short period of time, with further momentum.
Accompanying blockchain activities have shown significant growth in various indicators:
– Daily trading volume has increased by more than 50 times, from 100,000 transactions per day in March 2024 to 4-9 million transactions per day.
– Daily active wallets have increased 8 times, from 60,000 in March 2024 to nearly 500,000.
– The number of activated wallets on-chain has increased 4 times, from 1.5 million addresses to 6.2 million.
– TON’s daily fees average $100,000, with half of the fees being burned.
According to data from ton.apps, the TON ecosystem currently has 787 apps, including development tools, games, NFTs, social networking, launchpads, and groups, among other categories.
Interaction Directions
In terms of interaction within the TON ecosystem, there are two main approaches:
1. Existing DeFi projects that have achieved scale can receive additional rewards from the Foundation’s liquidity incentives.
2. Games and meme projects with strong virality, such as Notcoin-like games, can easily attract a large number of real users based on Telegram.
Below are some interaction opportunities.
Wallets
The first step to participating in the TON ecosystem is to use a wallet. Currently, there are a total of 43 wallets that support the TON chain.
Wallet is a centralized custodial wallet native to Telegram, similar to WeChat Wallet within WeChat’s settings. Users can directly use Wallet for token exchanges. Wallet supports user deposits via P2P or bank cards.
TON Space
TON Space is a self-custodial wallet launched by the TON Foundation based on Telegram. It is also embedded within Telegram and can be accessed directly from Ton Space in Wallet. Users can connect to TON Space from TON-based dApps.
Using TON Space is similar to using other non-custodial EVM wallets. Existing accounts can be imported from non-custodial wallets such as Tonkeeper. The difference is that wallet recovery can be done not only through mnemonic phrases and private keys but also through email and Telegram accounts.
DeFi
Although TON’s TVL has experienced explosive growth in the past two months, the asynchronous calling design of the TON chain, while improving performance and scalability, has also increased the difficulty of development and maintenance for developers. Therefore, unlike Ethereum Layer 2, TON does not see large-scale migration of leading DeFi projects, and there is still plenty of room for diversity in the DeFi ecosystem.
TonUP
TonUP is a LaunchPad based on the TON chain that helps promising projects on TON with asset issuance and fundraising, promoting the development of the TON ecosystem. Early supported projects such as Tap Fantasy have already gained over 730,000 users. TonUP has received official support from the TON Foundation and TONCoin.Fund and has received funding from reputable investment institutions such as Foresight X.
STON.fi
STON.fi is the largest DEX on TON, providing low-cost, low-slippage trading services integrated directly with TON wallets. According to Defillama data, excluding LSD projects not included in public chain TVL, STON.fi ranks first in the TON ecosystem with a TVL of $222 million, accounting for 71.4% of the total TVL. It is the largest beneficiary of TON’s liquidity incentives, with TVL growing 20 times in two months.
STON.fi offers a wide range of trading pairs and provides additional rewards for trading or providing liquidity in designated pools before the end of the June liquidity incentive campaign, with an APY exceeding 200%. STON.fi also offers 10,000 $STON tokens, with the highest deposit receiving a 10% airdrop based on the deposit amount.
Tonstakers
TON is a POS blockchain, and Tonstakers is the first LSD-based liquidity staking platform in the TON ecosystem developed by TOP Labs. Similar to Lido, users can stake $TON to obtain $stTON, which can be exchanged back for $TON after the staking period ends. Currently, more than 50,000 users have staked $220 million worth of $TON. Although the APY is only 2.76%, it is still a good investment choice for long-term holders who are optimistic about $TON.
Game
Compared to the relatively scarce DeFi ecosystem, TON is very strong in the gaming track. Mini apps based on Telegram are naturally suited for social games, with simple and easy gameplay that can be easily shared through Telegram. The recently launched $Notcoin on Binance Launchpool is a small game on TON where players dig $Notcoin by clicking on coins in Telegram. With its simple gameplay, team mechanics, and real earnings, it has spread like wildfire and has garnered over 35 million users with a daily active user count reaching 5 million. Notcoin not only leverages Telegram’s massive crypto user base but also provides many people with their first experience with digital currency, fully demonstrating the application potential of the TON chain.
Catizen
Catizen is the second Telegram Bot product developed by Pluto Studio. As an early development team and collaborator in the ecosystem, the Pluto team has received multiple support from the TON Foundation in terms of economics and resources. In August 2023, the team launched its first Telegram Bot game, Tap Fantasy, in the TON ecosystem, which currently has 730,000 users worldwide. Catizen is a cat-themed game that integrates GameFi, AI, and the metaverse, providing users with highly immersive interactive experiences. Within two months of its launch, Catizen has attracted over 10 million players, bringing 695,000 users to the TON chain. Catizen players can participate in the game by raising cat characters and earn token rewards through in-game activities. The game also provides a mining mechanism, allowing players to earn $wCATI tokens in the form of cat paws by completing tasks and activities.
In addition to the game itself, Catizen also serves as a platform for Launchpool. The first round of Launchpool, which ended at the beginning of the month, distributed 840 million $wCATI tokens, with over 24,000 participants and over $39 million in total locked value. In the next phase, Catizen will transform into a Telegram game platform and has already signed contracts with 18 popular WeChat mini-games. With their valuable experience in blockchain development and deployment in the TON ecosystem, the team will gradually launch these games on the Catizen game platform and initiate Launchpools. Considering Catizen’s unique positioning, experienced team, and on-chain performance, it is worth tracking and participating in the long term.
Hyper
Hyper is the first metaverse project on TON that simulates real-life scenarios. It is similar to Notcoin but with upgraded gameplay that cannot be replaced by simple clickers. Players start the game by clicking on a bot, drag the character to collect coins according to the instructions, and can obtain high scores by purchasing boxes to replenish battery power and collect coins.
The game also has a viral strategy of inviting friends to earn coins. With the success of Notcoin as a reference, this upgraded version of Notcoin has great potential with its improved graphics and enhanced gameplay.
The Open League (TOL)
TOL is a competition for projects and users within the TON ecosystem. It aims to increase user participation in the entire ecosystem, help projects expand their user base, and develop more attractive and functional products for the large audience on Telegram. Users are also rewarded for their participation.
Therefore, when interacting with the TON ecosystem, the TOL leaderboard is a good guide. The first season, which lasted for a month, distributed over $3 million worth of $TON. The top two DeFi projects, Ston.fi and DeDust, are now the top two DEXs in terms of TVL on TON, with Tonstakers, the top-ranked LSD project, surpassing Ston.fi’s TVL. The second season saw Catizen ranking first and NFT trading platform Getgems ranking second, with Getgems providing the primary trading market for previous Notcoin points.
The current third season is underway, with an expected distribution of $1 million worth of $TON. Projects that rank high are the key targets for interaction.
Yescoin
In addition to Catizen, Yescoin, which ranked second, is the fastest-growing game on TON. It is very similar to Notcoin, with a coin collection and task completion mechanism where players can collect tokens by sliding their screens on their phones. These simple and addictive games have a following of enthusiasts.
Tonano
Tonano is the inscription project on the TON chain. During the minting process of the first TON20 inscription, the participation of users and triggered network transactions brought huge traffic and transaction load to the TON network, resulting in temporary delays and congestion. Tonano’s Marketplace has a trading volume of over $1 million, providing necessary liquidity for TON20. The cross-protocol asset bridge enables asset interchange between TON20 and other inscription protocols and Jetton tokens, making a broader inscription ecosystem possible.
Fanton
Fanton is a TON-based game similar to a football manager game, where star cards are issued as NFTs on the TON chain. It already has over 400,000 registered users and has received investments from TONcoin.Fund, First Stage Labs, and Tonstarter. With the upcoming European Championship, it is likely to become the next hot topic.
Squid
Squid is an inscription game built on TON where users can purchase squid eggs containing $TON on the market, hatch squids from the eggs, produce more squid eggs, and sell them for profit.
Conclusion
The TON ecosystem is still in its early stages, especially in terms of DeFi projects, but the value of TON cannot be simply measured by TVL. With the natural advantage of Telegram’s user base, TON has a unique position that other public chains cannot match. Mini-app games that focus on mobile platforms are particularly easy to spread and create FOMO, similar to WeChat games like “Sheep’s World.” At the same time, for non-crypto users who use Telegram, TON can greatly reduce the learning curve and easily bridge the gap between Web2 and Web3.
With the stimulus and promotion from the TON Foundation, the TON ecosystem has shown good development momentum and is worth long-term attention and participation.
