The TON ecosystem has experienced remarkable growth and transformation over the past year, establishing itself as a significant player in the blockchain landscape. This report provides an in-depth analysis of the key developments within the TON network, focusing on its impressive rise in token value, market capitalization, and various performance metrics. We will explore the surge in Total Value Locked (TVL), the role of major contributors like Tonstaker and STON.fi, and the expanding ecosystem infrastructure. Additionally, we will examine the growing demand for stablecoins and the rapid user base expansion of Telegram, a crucial component of the TON ecosystem. This report aims to offer stakeholders a comprehensive understanding of the current state and future potential of the TON network, highlighting its robust growth trends and the opportunities that lie ahead.

1. Fundamentals

1.1 TON Historical Performance

Over the past year, the price of TON has been steadily rising, reaching an all-time high (ATH) of approximately $7 per token this year, resulting in a market capitalization of around $24 billion. Compared to the price of $2 per token in May of last year, this marks a 2.5-fold increase.

The daily trading volume is consistently in the range of $200 million to $600 million, with the peak reaching as high as $1 billion.

1.2 Value Locked (TVL) in TON

Since February this year, the TVL of the TON network has experienced explosive growth, skyrocketing from approximately $25 million to around $300 million.

Tonstaker, which provides liquidity staking, and the decentralized AMM, STON.fi, have the highest TVL. Notably, STON.fi has achieved a 116% increase in TVL over the past month.

1.3 TON Data Insights

With the establishment of its ecosystem infrastructure (e.g., DEX, DNS, etc.), the TON network has seen explosive growth across various metrics. Daily transaction count has surpassed 5 million, and the number of daily active wallets has reached 321,000.

The number of tokens has reached 4.6 million, but users' DEX (Decentralized Exchange) trading volume is only $3-4 million per day. This indicates that TON still has significant growth potential in the area of high-quality assets, and the plan to attract a large number of users to DeFi is still in its early stages.

1.4 TON Ecosystem: 785+ apps

As of May 23, 2024, the various projects in the TON ecosystem, covering multiple categories such as wallets, decentralized exchanges (DEXs), staking, browsers, bridges, launchpads, games, betting, NFT collections, NFT services, social and memes, etc., reflect TON's comprehensive layout and rapid expansion in multiple fields.

Ton's ecology, focus and developer ecology are different from Ethereum: Ethereum is heavy on DeFi and has a strong crypto narrative; Ton attaches great importance to the diversity and breadth of Mini Programs, and the narrative is web2.5. Ton Space and telegram portals can attract a large amount of web2 traffic, and the overall ecosystem has traffic sources, application scenarios, social relationships, payment gateways, and user reach.

1.5 Comparison of the performance of ton, Ethereum, and Solana

In terms of network performance, TON is also different from Ethereum and Solana. Compared to Ethereum and Solana, Ton can handle more complex transaction types with the same efficiency and get instant cross-chain shard communication. In addition, TON's TVL and FDV are still catching up with Solana.

2.Key Drivers

2.1 Ton's USDT Trend

In April 2024, Tether launched the USDT stablecoin on the TON blockchain to provide higher liquidity for the ecosystem and enhance peer-to-peer payment capabilities for Telegram's 900 million users.

As of May 24, 2024, the authorized supply of USDT on the TON chain has increased to $330 million.

Overall, Ethereum and TRON are still the two main chains for USDT issuance, with their combined supply accounting for over 90%. As a new emerging public chain, the supply of USDT on the TON chain is currently small but growing rapidly, reflecting the strong demand for stablecoins in the TON ecosystem.

2.2 Telegram User Data

As a popular instant messaging application, Telegram has maintained rapid growth in its user base thanks to excellent privacy protection, rich features, and a good user experience.

In 2014, the number of Telegram users was only 35 million; by 2024, it has grown to 900 million.

2.3 Backers

Institutions such as Animoca Brands, DWF Labs, and Mask Network have invested in TON, though the specific investment amounts were not disclosed. In May 2024, Pantera Capital announced its largest investment ever in the TON project.

Telegram's TON is actively supporting the development of its ecosystem through various initiatives, primarily including Grants and The Open League. The Grants program has already distributed $1.4 million, supporting over 110 projects and more than 520 builders. The Open League is an ecosystem-wide competition where projects compete based on their performance metrics.

3. Challenges & Opportunities

3.1 Challenge

TVL

Although ecological activity is increasing, the volume of ecological funds is far from reaching the level of the head public chain.

User Activity

Telegram's monthly active users have exceeded 900 million, but the overall conversion rate of users to Ton is far from enough, and future user conversion and education are also a big challenge.

Ecosystem Richness

The overall ecology is still dominated by SocialFi and mini games, and the overall ecological richness is not good enough.

The overall user experience and project maintenance are still criticized, such as the problem that the built-in wallet cannot be recharged, and the node maintenance cost of the project party or exchange is relatively high.

Smart Contract

The popularity of Ton's smart contract development language is also a big problem, and developers have three programming language options: Fift, FunC and Tact. Fift and FunC are more difficult to develop, while Tact is a new high-level language launched by TON, and the syntax is similar to Typescript, aiming to reduce the difficulty of development.

3.2 Opportunity

Top Capitals

Pentera, Hashkey and other leading capitals in the blockchain industry have invested a lot of money and manpower to support Ton, which is also an important condition for the success of the ecosystem.

Top Cexs

Top CEXs such as OKX and Binance have begun to pay attention to the Ton ecosystem, and have launched Binance's Launchpool and OKX's Jumpstart at the same time.

Ecosystem Incentives

TON officials are also constantly spending significant amounts to incentivize ecological users and project parties, such as TON token airdrops and advertising fee returns, which can stimulate the development of the ecosystem to a large extent.

Telegram Bots

The TG Bot projects launched in 2023 are still thriving, although they are accessed with the help of Telegram's bot module, but the popularity of Bot has largely contributed to the market education and user mind cultivation of the TON ecosystem.

Mini Games

Lightweight mini games based on SocialFi have a low threshold, certain playability, and come with potential token incentives, which are very attractive to users inside and outside the circle.

4.Conclusion

To sum up, the TON ecosystem has seen significant growth over the past year. The comprehensive layout and diversified development of the TON ecosystem shows that it is actively expanding in multiple fields, forming a comprehensive blockchain ecological environment. TON not only enhances the user experience, but also lays a solid foundation for its continued growth in the future.

Despite this, the Ton ecosystem still faces many challenges, such as the lack of richness of ecological projects and the difficulty of developing smart contract languages.

Overall, the TON network has great potential for DeFi and other blockchain applications, thanks to its growing user base and robust ecosystem infrastructure.

Disclaimer

The content provided in this report is for illustrative purposes only and is intended to offer insights into the cryptocurrency market. It is not, and should not be interpreted as, investment advice or recommendations. The information contained herein is based on sources believed to be reliable; however, we do not guarantee its accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any opinions expressed reflect a judgment at the date of publication and are subject to change without notice. Readers are advised to conduct their own research and due diligence and, where appropriate, seek professional advice before making any investment decisions. The authors and publishers of this report accept no liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of the information provided.

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