Author: Joyce, Blockchain in Plain Language
The recent market sentiment has been very pessimistic, especially in the altcoin market. With the entire Bitcoin market in turmoil, altcoins have taken a nosedive, and there are countless projects being cut in half.
However, in this bleak market, the Ton ecosystem has shown remarkable stability. Over the past 30 days, TON has risen by 23%, and the TVL of the entire Ton ecosystem has skyrocketed since March, increasing by more than six times in just four months. Projects within the ecosystem, such as Notcoin, have seen a substantial increase in both price and user volume. Is the summer of the Ton ecosystem approaching?
Ton Ecosystem’s New Highlights
The biggest feature of the Ton ecosystem is its reliance on Telegram, which boasts 9 billion active users. However, there has been criticism that there is not a strong enough connection between Ton and Telegram, and Telegram’s platform system hasn’t provided much empowerment to Ton. Nevertheless, there has been a fundamental change since the beginning of this year.
From March to the present, the TVL of the Ton ecosystem has increased from less than $23 million to $145 million, a growth of over six times. At the same time, the price of TON has also increased by about three times during this period, remaining resilient despite the recent bear market. What are the positive factors behind these developments?
1) Utilizing TON for Telegram’s advertising system
Unlike social platforms such as Facebook and WeChat, Telegram does not rely on user data for targeted advertising due to its commitment to user privacy. This has led to Telegram not having an accurate user advertising platform, deviating from the mainstream advertising profit model used by other social media giants for many years.
However, recently, Telegram has launched an advertising platform that does not rely on precise user labeling systems, along with a subscription service. In February, the founder announced that the platform would officially open to all advertising customers in nearly 100 countries in March. Channel owners will receive 50% of all advertising revenue, settled in TON.
Next month, channel owners on Telegram will begin to receive a share of the revenue generated from their ads. Telegram channels generate 10 trillion monthly views, but only 10% of these are commercialized through advertising, reflecting the platform’s privacy-focused design. In March, the platform will open to all advertisers in nearly a hundred new countries. Channel owners in these countries will receive 50% of the revenue generated from the ads displayed in their channels.
To ensure fast and secure payment and withdrawal of advertising, we will use the TON blockchain. Similar to how we process Telegram usernames on Fragment, we will use TON to sell ads and share revenue with channel owners. This will create a virtuous cycle where content creators will be able to withdraw their TON or reinvest it in promoting and upgrading their channels.
For TON, this is a significant leap from being “air” to “value”. Before this, TON was only used for on-chain smart contract transactions, staking, cross-chain transactions, and other on-chain service fees, similar to other public chains. However, the consumption of TON on the Ton public chain is minimal, as the developers and user base are much smaller than other popular public chains. Although it can be used to purchase virtual goods such as anonymous accounts on Telegram, the total transaction volume is not much to imagine.
The decision to use TON as the only settlement asset for the Telegram advertising platform is a significant empowerment for Ton. It effectively empowers Ton with Telegram’s 9 billion users, truly achieving a deep integration of the Ton ecosystem and the Telegram platform. This has opened up the ceiling for the Ton ecosystem and TON price all at once.
To avoid the risk of centralization due to the Telegram team receiving more TON, the founder subsequently announced that more than 10% of TON held by the team will be sold at a discounted price to long-term holders, with a lock-up period of 1-4 years. This move will help prevent the centralization of TON while reducing the circulation supply through lock-ups, providing a positive outlook for the ecosystem.
2) Launch of Ton Space
Ton Space was launched in September 2023. Prior to this, the built-in wallet in Telegram, Wallet, was KYC-compliant and could only be used for payments. However, Ton Space allows users to manage their private keys, similar to a conventional encrypted wallet.
After using Ton Space, users can seamlessly connect their Telegram accounts with various DeFi, GameFi, NFT, and other services within the Ton ecosystem. Just as users can directly shop on Pinduoduo or JD.com within WeChat, Telegram’s 9 billion active users can directly buy and sell tokens/NFTs, borrow tokens, or participate in GameFi projects within Telegram, making it much easier for them to enter the Web3 world.
This is also a major move for the Ton ecosystem, as no other public chain has such a large user base as Telegram.
3) Platform’s Emphasis on Mini Applications
After opening up payment channels, Telegram began to emphasize mini applications, similar to WeChat mini programs, based on the Telegram platform and usable without installation. Notcoin, a recent hot app, is an embedded mini-program within the platform, where users can directly participate in various activities such as “Click to Earn” tokens within Telegram. With the support of Telegram’s official traffic, the app has attracted over 40 million users in just a few months.
In addition to Notcoin, many other Web3 mini-applications have emerged, and it seems that Telegram’s platform is encouraging massive user participation in games without the need for third-party agencies, bypassing the need for studios to promote GameFi projects.
Apart from these actions, there are several other deep collaborations between Telegram and the Ton ecosystem. It appears that starting from the second half of 2023, Telegram has truly begun to solidify its strategy to enter Web3 and has launched a deep collaborative partnership with Ton.
As a result, both TON price and TVL have shown a breakthrough in growth. For the Telegram platform, this has opened up a highly profitable model apart from advertising and subscription fees, indicating a win-win situation.
Ton Ecosystem Project Highlights
Currently, there are 874 projects in Ton.app. Although this may not be as impressive as the ecosystems of Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, and other top-tier platforms, it is worth noting that only Notcoin has been launched on the top-flow platform so far. Nevertheless, in the past eight months, the number of Ton ecosystem projects has increased by nearly 60%, and the TVL of the entire ecosystem has grown several times, demonstrating the strong growth momentum of the Ton ecosystem.
Here are some of the popular projects in the Ton ecosystem:
Notcoin
Notcoin is a “click to earn” game and has become one of the most popular Web3 applications in the Telegram Apps Center. Despite criticism that its token, NOT, has not formed a closed-loop application within the gaming ecosystem and has been labeled a “memecoin,” it has seen a significant surge in price after being listed on BN.
Catizen
Catizen is the largest gaming application platform in the Telegram ecosystem, with over 20 million total users and more than 500,000 paying users. It has over 1.25 million on-chain users and has consistently ranked first in the Ton Open League for several seasons.
Hamster Kombat
Hamster Kombat is a gaming app that has recently gained popularity due to an anticipated airdrop. The official data shows that its active user base has surpassed 150 million, with a 50% increase in the past week, ranking third in the Telegram Apps Center.
Gatto|Game
Gatto is a pet-raising game and has been showcased as a key ecological project by the Ton Foundation. As of January 2024, Gatto had reached 30,000 daily active users, with over 1 million pets created, generating a monthly income of $35,000.
Gamee
Gamee is a social gaming platform under the umbrella of Animoca Brands and is one of the most popular gaming ecosystems on Telegram. Despite a drop in token price due to a hacking incident at the beginning of 2024, Gamee continues to maintain high popularity within the Telegram ecosystem.
PocketFi
PocketFi is a Telegram trading bot that supports cross-chain transactions. It has attracted over 1.4 million users in just three months of launch, with a strong presence in the Telegram Apps Center.
Blum
Blum is a DEX in the Telegram ecosystem that provides spot and simple derivative trading. Although related functions have not yet been launched, it has attracted over 10 million users and has been selected for the Binance Labs accelerator.
Yescoin
Yescoin, a mimic of Notcoin, has also gained high popularity, with over 180 million users and over 60 million subscribers in the official Telegram channel, showing impressive growth.
DeDust and Ston.fi
DeDust and Ston.fi are DEXs within the Telegram ecosystem, ranking high on the Apps Center chart. With TVL of $320 million and $260 million, respectively, they are the flagships of the entire Ton ecosystem’s TVL of $634 million. Ston.fi’s official Telegram channel has over 680,000 followers, surpassing DeDust in popularity.
Uxlink
Uxlink is the largest social infrastructure project in the Telegram ecosystem, based on social networks within Telegram. The registered user data has exceeded 10 million and has attracted investment from well-known institutions. Although it has not yet been launched on major platforms, the future development of this SocialFi project with such a massive user base is promising.
Conclusion
Looking at the growth in TON price, TVL, and the prosperity of the ecosystem, the Ton ecosystem has truly stood out in the current bleak market. However, beneath this prosperity, there are some issues that cannot be ignored.
For example, in terms of the number of developers, the Ton ecosystem only has 39 full-time developers, and a total of 175 developers, which is far less than Ethereum’s 2392 and 7864. The same is true for Solana, which has 436 and 1615, respectively, much higher than the Ton ecosystem.
Additionally, the frequent account theft issues on the Telegram platform have become more rampant, especially after the introduction of the integrated Web3 wallet, making it an urgent problem that needs to be addressed as Telegram progresses into Web3. This is particularly concerning for newcomers to Web3 with weak security awareness. Furthermore, the Ton public chain has not been operational for long and has not undergone many security incidents, so the overall security of the ecosystem will be a major test in its future development.
Of course, both the number of developers and security issues can be gradually iterated and optimized in the development of the ecosystem. After all, the development of the entire Web3 industry is an ongoing process of trial and error.
