In the first quarter of 2024, the memecoin frenzy became the central theme of the TON DeFi sector and the entire cryptocurrency market. This was partly due to the surge in on-chain activities and DeFi metrics.
One major highlight of this quarter was the seven-fold increase in Total Value Locked (TVL), driven by increased activity on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and the dominance of the liquidity staking protocol, Tonstakers.
Another key development was the launch of The Open League, a project that rewards users for interacting with the TON ecosystem and sets up a Toncoin prize pool to reward the top-performing TON projects each season. A crucial element of this project is the introduction of mining pools with enhanced Annual Percentage Yield (APY). The introduction of mining pools, coupled with the surge in memecoin trading volume, has made DEXs the top-performing DeFi sector in terms of TVL on TON.
The collision between The Open League and the memecoin frenzy has attracted significant attention to DEXs like DeDust and STON.fi, which have listed a large number of these tokens. According to Tonalytica, the total trading volume on DEXs on TON reached a historic high of 4.2 million USD in the past 90 days, surpassing 60 million USD in the second quarter.
STON.fi and DeDust, as the main liquidity pool venues, have made significant contributions to the growth of TVL on TON in the first three seasons of The Open League. The third season is currently underway, and readers can check the available boost pools on STON.fi and DeDust and access The Open League Pools bot.
STON.fi ranked first in the DeFi competition of The Open League’s pilot season, followed closely by DeDust. The ranking is based on the change in TVL and the protocol fees earned during the pilot season. The final ranking can be viewed here.
One of the themes in the first quarter of 2024 was the launch of Telegram Mini Apps by the two major DEXs, DeDust and STON.fi. These mini apps diversify the trading experience and allow users to trade directly on Telegram, which is particularly convenient for traders using Telegram-based token research tools and news channels.
In addition, Storm Trade, the main derivatives exchange on TON, now allows traders to use Toncoin as collateral for futures trading. This update eliminates the need to convert TON to jUSDT as collateral, simplifying the user onboarding process and adding additional utility to Toncoin in the ecosystem. Storm Trade has also completed its largest-ever reward program as part of The Open League, with a prize pool of around 130,000 USD. The rewards are distributed to top performers in terms of trading volume, PnL ranking, and providing liquidity to designated pairs.
Liquidity staking continues to be the highest sector in terms of TVL on TON. According to DefiLlama, TON ranks 17th in terms of TVL when considering both staking and liquidity staking values.
Tonstakers emerged as the winner in the liquidity staking competition of The Open League’s pilot season, followed by bemo and the new liquidity staking protocol, Stakee. They continue to dominate the TVL market share. The ranking is based on the change in TVL and the number of new users joining the protocol during the respective period.
Stakee is a new liquidity staking protocol on TON that combines simplicity, reliability, and high APY to attract Toncoin holders seeking enhanced returns and low fees. The platform ensures the security and transparency of transactions by using the official smart contracts developed by the TON Foundation.
Additionally, TON Whales launched Whale Liquid, a new liquidity staking pool. The protocol allows Toncoin holders to earn wsTON, which can be exchanged in DeDust and TON’s lending protocols. The project is currently in the testing phase with a total stake of 848K Toncoin (over 5 million USD).
In the lending sector, the Evaa Protocol has been launched on the TON mainnet. As of this report, Evaa has a total supply of 26.1 million USD and a total borrowing volume of 12.03 million USD.
The Evaa Protocol held supply and borrowing activities as part of The Open League. Participants had the unique opportunity to borrow TON, stTON, tsTON, jUSDC, and jUSDT tokens through the EvaaAppBot or on app.evaa.finance. Participants received weekly airdrops, interest rewards for supply and borrowing activities, and EVAA XP points, which can be redeemed for EVAA DAO tokens in the future. Although the event has officially ended, the reward pool in the application still offers attractive APY.
DAOLama also held a farming season and introduced reward points (RP), an internal token designed to incentivize user activity within the application. Each loan received RP, which can be exchanged for $LLAMA. The promotion period ended on March 30th, and users can now trade the token on STON.fi and DeDust.
RedStone, the first oracle solution on TON, plays a crucial role in connecting the blockchain to the external world. Oracles provide a reliable way to bring external data onto the blockchain, such as token or stock prices, enabling smart contracts to interact and respond to external events.
RedStone became the first available oracle on TON, marking an important milestone in TON’s DeFi ecosystem based on data integrity. RedStone emphasizes the need for significant changes in integration methods on TON due to its asynchronous and fully decentralized nature, involving more complex inter-contract messaging rather than the typical simple contract interaction in other blockchains. Looking ahead, RedStone aims to enhance TON’s DeFi ecosystem with new relay systems, smart contract templates, and advanced data feeds to meet the growing demand for data integrity. Click here for more information on integration.
The jettons on the TON blockchain are opening up a unique niche market, representing a range of digital assets that go beyond traditional utility. While some of these jettons may not have clearly defined practical applications yet, they still hold significant positions in the broader ecosystem.
The increasing interest in these diverse assets could be the starting point for a larger process: the growing demand for DeFi infrastructure to meet the capital efficiency requirements of token holders. This is evidenced by the success of The Open League’s incentive program.
To be honest, I never believed in TON since its discovery in 2022. Absolutely not. I thought, “This is just another ghost chain.” But as you can see, that’s not the case. My first interaction with TON was at the end of 2022 when I only had a two-digit asset in cryptocurrencies (yes, two digits) and won a giveaway.
The administrator of this Telegram channel messaged me privately and asked, “Hey, can I send your prize to TON using the Telegram wallet?” I was like, “What? Telegram wallet?” He kindly explained everything and sent the prize. By the way, it was 10 USD. Thankfully, TON had low fees, so I sent it to a CEX.
As I started writing posts and learned to utilize content creation for the whole day, I was deeply involved in marketing strategies. For some reason, I didn’t like TON’s marketing strategy at that time. Six months later, I still didn’t fully like their marketing strategy. But as we can see from the numbers of active users, TVL, and TON’s market cap, it was effective despite my opinion.
I started hearing ordinary people mentioning TON without involving cryptocurrencies. TON was cheap, accessible, and easy to understand. That’s why ordinary people liked mining Notcoin. Currently, TON is ranked 9th in “Today’s Cryptocurrency Prices by Market Cap” on CoinMarketCap.
Despite many areas for improvement, such as marketing, TON will continue to receive more attention in the future. The numbers of active users, TVL, and TON’s market cap are impressive and completely beyond my expectations.
As the DeFi ecosystem on TON becomes more complex, there will be an increasing demand for reliable and secure oracle services. The efforts of RedStone indicate a high-level trend in TON’s data integrity. We can expect further penetration of oracle solutions into the ecosystem in the near future.
What are we building on TON now?
We look forward to seeing:
– Bringing EVM capabilities to TON solutions.
– DEXs with non-standard order execution models, including exchanges based on limit order books.
– Auto-compounders/yield optimizers.
