While most crypto projects are struggling to survive in the cold winter, the TON ecosystem is growing rapidly and attracting investors attention. TON has shown an amazing rate of return in this years investment portfolio. Even when the market fell and the copycats were cut in half, it was relatively resistant to declines. This breakthrough performance stems from the vigorous development of the TON ecosystem. This year, the price of $TON exceeded $8, with an annual return rate of 480%. The soaring price has also attracted much attention to its ecosystem. In 3 months, TVL increased 20 times to over $600 million, and the number of daily active addresses once surpassed Ethereum. Backed by Telegrams huge 1 billion user base, the TON ecosystem is expanding in an unstoppable manner, which makes us extremely excited about the prospect of large-scale application of TON.
1. Ton’s past and present life
1. How the project was established:
TON was originally created by Nikolai and Pavel Durov, the founders of the Telegram team. Telegram is undoubtedly one of the giants in the field of social communications today, with more than 1 billion active users. It is precisely because of Telegrams powerful resources and wide influence that TON has been given extraordinary expectations from the beginning.
In 2017, Telegram launched a $1.8 billion ICO aimed at launching its own crypto project TON.
In 2018, a private placement raised $1.7 billion and launched the Telegram Open Network (TON) blockchain. Unfortunately, the SEC questioned and investigated this in 2019, accusing Telegram of illegal fundraising, which ultimately forced Telegram to abandon the TON project.
In 2020, Telegram announced that it would open source the TON project and allow the community to take over and continue to advance it. With the authorization and support of Telegram, the community team restarted and optimized TON and renamed it The Open Network.
In 2022, TON Nominator Pools, TON DeFi, TON DNS, TON payment, TON Proxy, TON Sites and TON Storage were launched one after another.
In September 2023, as regulatory attitudes towards the crypto industry changed, Telegram officially announced that it would regard TON as its own Web3 infrastructure, and the two parties established a formal partnership.
In June this year, Tether also announced its cooperation with TON to integrate USDT into the TON ecosystem. Within three days, the total supply of USDT on the TON chain exceeded 60 million, and the user base of the ecosystem is growing rapidly.
Telegrams support is undoubtedly a strong endorsement for TON. As a technology giant with a huge user base, Telegram, together with Tethers support, will undoubtedly pave the way for the large-scale adoption of TON that everyone is looking forward to.
2. TONs latest official roadmap shows a booming prospect. In the second half of 2024, they will launch a series of important updates:
The latest roadmap from TON official website
The launch of the [Gas-free Transaction] function will significantly reduce users transaction costs and improve their user experience.
The launch of the [Official Cross-Chain Bridge] will not only enhance the security of TON, but also achieve seamless connection with other ecosystems and improve overall cross-chain interoperability.
The release of the [new generation wallet] will provide users with more convenient and secure asset management tools.
The launch of the [Stablecoin Toolkit] will bring more financial application scenarios to the TON ecosystem, such as micropayments.
The optimization of the [Enhance Staking] function can further encourage users to participate in network governance and maintenance.
These new plans will further enhance TONs functionality and competitiveness. With the cancellation of transaction fees, small financial transactions will become easier, and new application scenarios such as small payments within social platforms and content payment will be spawned. Although TON has previously introduced a third-party cross-chain bridge, the birth of the official cross-chain bridge will achieve a qualitative improvement in terms of security, user experience, and even cross-ecological connectivity. In addition, once Telegrams huge user base is connected to TON, traffic monetization will bring considerable commercial value to the entire ecosystem.
2. Ecological Status
The TON team is constantly optimizing its technical architecture, striving to find a balance between performance and scalability. At the same time, they have been actively promoting ecological construction and attracting more developers to join. Currently, 858 projects have joined the TON ecosystem. I believe that in the near future, the TON chain will usher in a more prosperous situation. The following will introduce some TON ecological projects from several important sections:
Data source: ton.app website
1. Wallet:
A wallet is the first step to participate in the TON ecosystem. According to ton.app data, there are currently 47 wallets that support the TON chain. The following are some of the most commonly used ones:
Telegram built-in wallet connection page
Ton Space:
The official wallet of the TON Foundation is embedded in Telegram and opened through the Ton Space in the Wallet. Users can connect directly from TON-based dApps with TON Space. TON Space has a similar experience to other non-custodial EVM wallets. You can import existing accounts from other non-custodial wallets such as Tonkeeper. The difference is that in addition to the mnemonic private key, you can also restore it through email and Telegram account. Note that you can only receive Toncoin and tokens on the TON chain at present.
Tonkeeper:
A non-custodial Web3 wallet tailored for the TON ecosystem, users have full control over their private keys and asset security. Supports receiving, sending, and purchasing cryptocurrencies directly in the app, with a built-in exchange that supports trading of tokens and cryptocurrencies, and supports TON staking. Also includes a built-in browser for private and secure dApp interactions, making it a super app in the TON environment
MyTonWallet:
TON ecosystem commonly used wallet, no KYC certification required, $MY token has been issued, not yet listed on centralized exchanges
Tonhub
DeWallet
2.Defi:
Although the TON chain has achieved explosive growth in TVL in the past two months, its underlying architecture design is not as developer-friendly as Ethereums Layer 2 solution. Therefore, we have not seen large-scale migration of leading projects on the TON chain, and there is still a lot of room for improvement in the diversity of DeFi. The following are several leading DeFi protocols:
Tonstakers: Liquidity staking, stake $TON to get $stTON
Ston.fi: An important project in the TON ecosystem, with core functions including liquidity mining, DEX, lending services, and staking and rewards. Users can earn rewards by providing liquidity, trading tokens, borrowing and lending cryptocurrencies, and staking cryptocurrencies to earn rewards. It has the most complete trading pairs on TON.
Bemo: Liquidity Staking
Stakee: Liquidity Staking
Evaa Protocol: Lending and borrowing protocol
Blum: CeDeFi exchange, one of 13 projects in Binance Labs MVB VII accelerator program
Orbit Bridge: A cross-chain communication protocol developed by Orbit Chain that can currently transfer assets from Klaytn, Polygon, Ethereum, Wemix Mainnet, and Orbit Chain to the TON network
3. Trading Market:
There are many DEXs that support TON, such as the common Pancake, Uniswap, 1Inch, and Dodo, etc. Almost all CEXs are also listed on TON, and the NFT ecosystem is relatively mature. If we compare the transaction volume of Stonfi and DeDust, the largest DEXs on TON, with the DEX data on ETH and SOL, there is still a big difference.
Ston.fi: DEX, issued token $STON
DeDust: A DEX with the same functionality as Ston.fi
Getgems.io: The most popular NFT trading market on TON, with functions including buying and selling NFTs, minting NFTs and transferring NFTs. It can trade Notcoin NFTs, Telegram virtual accounts, Ton diamonds and other NFTs.
Anome: NFT asset issuance, trading market and lending protocol
Playmuse Marketplace: NFT Trading Marketplace
Fragment: The Telegram virtual number trading platform launched by TON in 2021 can trade Telegram IDs and can be traded anonymously
4. Games:
Data source: ton.app website
Tap to earn: Notcoin, Hamster kombat, Yescoin, Tapswap, etc.
Pet raising games: Catizen, Gatto, etc.
Card games: Fanton, etc.
MMORPG: Tap fantasy, Pixelverse, etc.
Game platform: Gamee, etc.
5.Launchpad:
TonUP: Launchpad platform, issued $UP token, listed on XT exchange
Tonstarter: Launchpad platform, investment from DWF Labs, Kingswap, etc.
XTON: Launchpad platform, has issued tokens $XTON, but has poor liquidity and has not yet been listed on centralized exchanges
PlatformICO: A simple ICO platform on TON
6. Social:
ton.place: Publish exclusive content and message followers to earn rewards
TONEX: A social protocol
MuggleLink: Freelance recruitment platform
7. Tools:
Tonviewer: Browser
TonRadar: Information display tool
TON Trending: Real-time display of trading pools with high 24-hour trading volume
TONAPI: Developer Tools
8. Ecosystem support: The Open League (TOL)
In order to further promote the development of the TON ecosystem, TON launched The Open League (TOL) in early April this year. This series of incentive programs aims to increase user participation in the entire ecosystem, expand the user base for the project, and develop more attractive and functional products for Telegrams huge audience. At the same time, participating developers and users will also receive corresponding rewards. The goal of this event is to convert Telegram users into Web3 chain users. It is beginner-friendly and provides a variety of ways to earn income, including low-risk mining activities and related tasks, as well as high-risk LP and trading competitions.
It is reported that TOL lasts for 3 seasons, each lasting 1 month. In the first season in April this year, TON provided the community with 30 million $TON as rewards, which was worth about 115 million US dollars at the time. The first season of Open League includes four major areas: The League, Token Mining, QuestsAirdrops, and Liquidity Pool Boosts. In each season, each project will compete fiercely on the five KPI indicator rankings according to its own project category. KPIs include token rankings, Meme coin and community token rankings, DeFi rankings, application rankings, and liquidity staking rankings.
This seasons public ranking list, source: https://ton.org/zh
Once the TOL plan was launched, it further stimulated the vitality of the TON ecosystem and attracted more developers and users to participate. This not only brought huge traffic to the development of various projects, but also brought a new Web3 experience to Telegram users. As the subsequent seasons of TOL continue to advance, we have reason to believe that the TON ecosystem will surely present a more prosperous situation.
3. Popular Meme Projects in the Ecosystem
Tokens on the TON blockchain, also known as jettons (similar to ERC 20 tokens), have developed rapidly in the last quarter of 2023. Jettons have largely driven the increase in trading activities and covered application scenarios such as DeFi, games, and payments.
1. Notcoin (NOT):
The first Memecoin to be mined on TON, Notcoin has attracted widespread attention with its unique mechanism. Within just a few months of its launch, Notcoin has attracted tens of millions of active users and is most popular in countries such as Russia, Uzbekistan, Nigeria, the United States, Germany and Iran. Since the TGE in May, NOT has been listed on all major exchanges, with a market value of nearly $1.5 billion, ranking 56. The founder said that more subsystems will be built for Notcoin in the future, which may include game platforms, competitions, ways to motivate contributors, and even AI-based decentralized universities open to everyone.
2.TON FISH MEMECOIN (FISH):
The first social meme token on TON, launched by the community instead of the foundation. It has attracted widespread attention since its launch and is the leading meme token in the TON ecosystem. It has surged many times before and is currently traded on the XT exchange. FISH also introduced NFT and gameplay, and FISH airdrops can be obtained by minting TON FISH BOX for free and upgrading it. The team has released a new game TON PET and a new meme token $TPET in May.
3. Renaissance Dog (REDO):
The dog-themed meme token on TON is on the TOL competition list. It has 100,000 followers on Twitter, but its account has been frozen for unknown reasons. The project tokens are fully circulated, with a total market value of 97 million US dollars. The on-chain transactions are very popular, and there are also well-known KOL discussions on Twitter. The social media is also very popular. It has not yet been listed on a centralized exchange.
4. Renaissance Cat (RECA):
The shield cat-themed meme token on TON was launched in June. Like REDO, it was listed in the TOL competition and has been ranked first in the TON TOL League for three consecutive days. The total market value is relatively small, at 6.5 million US dollars, and the potential is unlimited. There is currently a new member recommendation activity. Share it with friends on Tg bot, and new members can receive 0.2 $RECA every day. It has not yet been launched on a centralized exchange.
5.GRAM:
The first mining meme on TON. Anyone can mine with a simple GPU or browser, or even on a mobile phone. It won the 5th place in the first TOL competition. It is very popular on social media, with 200,000 followers on Twitter. The current total market value is 57 million US dollars, and it has been listed on Bitget.
4. Popular game projects in the ecosystem
According to the ton.app website, there are currently 128 game projects in the TON ecosystem. Starting with Notcoin, a Tap-to-earn craze for Telegram Mini Apps has been launched. The game mechanism is simple and interesting, and you can earn airdrops by simply tapping the phone screen. The popularity of Notcoin and the subsequent Catizen and Hamster Kombat have greatly increased the DAU of the TON ecosystem. Here are some popular Telegram Mini App games:
1.Hamster Kombat
Click the invitation link to enter Tg bot directly:
https://t.me/hamsTer_kombat_bot/start?startapp=kentId6759384023
Hamster Academy, an educational YouTube channel launched by Hamster
Hamster Kombat is a Tap2Earn management simulation game with simple operation. The daily tasks are to click on the hamster to earn coins and collect cards for mining. It is very popular in Russia because of the videos made by KOLs on TikTok, which has introduced a large number of Web2 users. According to reports, it has covered more than 100 million users. In addition, Hamster Kombats YouTube channel has achieved more than 10 million followers in just 7 days. Currently, Twitter has nearly 10 million followers, and the official Telegram channel has more than 40 million followers. It is reported that Hamster will issue coins in July, the token name is $HMSTR, and XT will launch HMSTR futures soon.
2. CatizenAI
Click the invitation link to enter Tg bot directly:
https://t.me/catizenbot/gameapp?startapp=rp_19758779
Catizen’s official token economy
CatizenAI is a Telegram Bot on-chain cat-raising game created by the game studio Pluto Studio. The team launched its first Telegram Bot-based mini-game Tap Fantasy in 2023. Catizen is officially supported by TON and launched its Beta version in March 2024. In April, it had 260,000 users, and in June, its number of users exceeded 12 million. It currently has 1.7 million Twitter followers. It has announced the token economy on social media, and 42% of its total will be used for airdrops.
Catizen players mainly raise cats to obtain game coins, and obtain token rewards through various in-game gameplay (synthesizing cats, big turntable, fishing). The game provides a mining mechanism, and players can earn $wCATI tokens by completing tasks and activities.
In addition, Catizen also launched Launchpool. In June, the first round of Launchpool was held and 840 million $wCATI was issued. More than 24,000 users participated, and the pledge amount exceeded 39 million US dollars. Catizen will also be transformed into a Telegram game platform in the future. It has signed contracts with 18 popular WeChat games. The team has received official financial support from TON. In the future, it will use its rich experience in chain reform and TON ecological deployment to gradually launch more games on the Catizen game platform.
3. Tapswap
Click the invitation link to enter Tg bot directly:
http://t.me/tapswap_bot
Tapswap is a Notcoin imitation and a Tap2Earn-style mining game. You can get game coins by tapping the screen, and there is an airdrop expectation. On June 19, it just held an AMA Space with TON officials. Currently, the number of Twitter followers has reached 6.02 million, and the number of Telegram channel followers has exceeded 22 million. Hamster Kombat and Tapswap have become the top three TG channels in the world.
4.Yescoin:
Click the invitation link to enter Tg bot directly:
https://t.me/theYescoin_bot
Yescoin is also a built-in bot game. Note that there are three Yescoins with the same name on Telegram. Be careful to distinguish the icons. It ranked second in the App competition ranking of The Open League Season 3, second only to Catizen. Currently, it has 3.1 million followers on Twitter and more than 20 million users. It is also the fastest growing game on TON in recent months. The game operation is simple and mindless. It is slightly different from Notcoins screen tapping. Yescoin is to slide the screen to get points. There are also some task modes, and you can collect tokens by sliding the phone screen.
5. Fanton Fantasy Football:
Click the invitation link to enter Tg bot directly:
https://t.me/FanTonGameBot
Fanton is a blockchain game with a football play-and-earn model. As a game for football fans, Fanton cleverly combines NFT technology with football elements to provide users with a new digital collection and trading experience. At the same time, users can also get rewards by participating in game activities, realizing play-and-earn. Currently, there are more than 400,000 registered users, and it has received investments from TONcoin.Fund, First Stage Labs and Tonstarter. The recent European Cup has also helped Fanton become a popular game on TON.
5. TON Ecosystem Outlook
At this years Token 2049 Dubai Conference, the TON Foundation stated that the value of Telegram is the freedom to communicate privately, express yourself, and build your applications. This positioning has been gradually realized to a certain extent.
TON already has a wealth of Mini App applications, providing users with a variety of services. At the same time, the TON ecosystem also integrates a convenient built-in wallet, opens up many payment channels, and brings users a smoother user experience. The development of this diverse ecosystem has not only attracted a large influx of funds, but also led to a high level of capital activity. This wealth effect will undoubtedly further promote TON to bring broader and new scene applications.
It is worth mentioning that TON is developing very fast. Tether continues to issue USDT on TON. TON itself subsidizes users with high deposit rates, and it has met the conditions of sufficient ecological funds in a very short time. The support of Telegram Mini App also gives TON huge mass adoption potential. If TON can continue to make up for its shortcomings in DeFi and other aspects in the future, or use other more unexpected ways to increase the activity of funds in the ecosystem, I believe it will definitely present a more surprising performance.
6. Reference links:
[ 1 ]. https://docs.ton.org/ton.pdf
[2]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegram_Open_Network
[3]. https://ton.org/zh/open-league?filterBy=forProjects
[4]. https://www.techflowpost.com/article/detail_16889.html
[5]. https://www.wublock123.com/index.php?m=contentc=indexa=showcatid=47id=19913
[6]. https://coinmarketcap.com/community/zh/articles/66616d8c54b0982fa df 3 c 476/
[7]. https://www.blocktempo.com/history-technology-and-ecological-construction-of-ton-ecology-from-an-investment-perspective/
[8]. https://www.odaily.news/post/5194796
