From mini-program games to payment bots, with more and more users pouring in, can the TON ecosystem break through the existing bottleneck and achieve sustainable development?
As Binance has launched multiple TON tokens in recent months, the market's enthusiasm for this ecosystem has become increasingly high. In this article, Biteye will explore the subsequent potential of the TON ecosystem in depth, in the short term? In the medium and long term? Welcome to read!
01 Background: Continuous Token Listing in TON Ecosystem
In this cycle, the sentiment against "VC coins" with high FDV and low circulation was once widely popular among investors. Binance, as a top exchange, announced in June this year that it would open its listing plan to more medium and low-market-cap projects to adapt to the market rhythm.
Among a series of small and medium-sized market value projects that have been launched one after another, the launch of TON-related tokens such as $NOT, $TON, $DOGS, $CATI, and $HMSTR has attracted widespread attention and certain controversy, and has also completely ignited the Telegram mini-program track.
$NOT is the token of Notcoin, a Tap to Earn game. Telegram users only need to enter the Notcoin channel and tap the screen to earn $NOT.
The "foolproof" operation has made Notcoin go viral on Telegram. Since its launch on January 1, 2024, Notcoin has become one of the most popular and user-friendly channels on Telegram. The community is extremely popular, with more than 30 million participants and an average daily active peak of more than 5 million.
Because of its simple and direct gameplay, when Binance announced the launch of $NOT in May, many users exclaimed: Is this possible? While many were surprised, they also had to pay attention to the Ton ecosystem and "get involved".
Source: https://www.cryptotimes.io/2024/05/16/notcoin-launches-on-ton-blockchain-with-80b-token-airdrop/
As Notcoin ignited the market and a large number of users poured in, TON ecological projects and users showed a surge. In August, Binance launched $TON spot and $DOGS spot. In September, it also launched $CATI and $HMSTR spot.
Unlike several other projects, $DOGS is a pure meme, with its black and white dog image inspired by Telegram founder Pavel Durov, who drew the iconic dog Spotty at a charity auction to support an orphanage.
$DGOS has opened airdrops to all Telegram users, and different amounts of points can be obtained based on the length of time the account has been registered and the level of activity. After the airdrop qualification is open for inquiry, users can also sign in and complete tasks to continue to receive points, which correspond to the amount of airdrops.
$DOGS had 42.2 million users eligible to participate in the airdrop, and 17 million users successfully received the airdropped tokens. Before listing on Binance, $DOGS already had 4.5 million independent holding addresses.
Source: https://www.cryptotimes.io/2024/08/21/dogs-coin-tge-postponed-check-out-new-date/
$CATI is the token of the mini-game Catizen. As a cat-themed Telegram mini-app game, players can easily start the game by simply launching the robot on the Telegram messaging platform.
Novice players will receive a kitten of the initial level. As the game progresses, more cats will "drop" into the player's cafe. If you have two cats of the same level, drag them together to upgrade them to a higher level cat and increase its ability to earn coins.
Since its launch in March 2024, Catizen has accumulated 40 million players, of which 15.2 million users are eligible for the airdrop.
Source: https://gam3s.gg/catizen/
$HMSTR is another token for the click game Hamster Kombat, which is similar to Notcoin. The core gameplay is still to click to earn coins.
Hamster gained astonishing user numbers after its launch, registering 239 million users within three months, of which about 100 million were monthly active users.
Source: https://hamsterkombatdaily.in/blog/hamster-kombat-app/
02 Thinking from the perspective of exchanges: business growth and market demand
As can be seen from the above listed projects, except for $TON, the other four tokens are projects with simple and crude participation methods and huge user data. Although slightly homogeneous, it can still be continuously listed on Binance. Although the logic behind it is diverse, the most important one is that the large holder group of these tokens can bring significant business growth to Binance.
The exchange listing coins, users depositing coins, and trading can directly bring a large number of users and trading volume to Binance. It is not difficult to infer that the growth effect is good through Binance's continuous online actions.
Compared with other Web3 dApps, the number of users of TON ecosystem tokens can be described as terrifying. The data of Hamster Kombat is also very impressive if it is put into Web2.
03 Why is it TON ecosystem?
The powerful listing effect of TON ecosystem is closely related to the strong user and traffic base of Telegram.
The founding of Telegram stems from the need for encrypted communications, and its founder Pavel Durov and his brother Nikita Durov jointly promoted the development of this platform.
As the third most downloaded instant messaging app in the world, Telegram has more than 950 million users, covering multiple regions, especially in India, Russia, and Southeast Asian countries.
Telegram itself has a strong encryption gene. Telegram itself is committed to protecting user privacy through confidential communications. At the same time, TG launched TON in 2018 and conducted an ICO that year to fund the development of TON.
However, due to the SEC's legal action against Telegram, Telegram was forced to stop the development of the project in 2020 and return investors' funds. Developers continued to promote the development of TON after Telegram withdrew from the operation of TON and formed an independent community.
Although Telegram and TON operate independently, TON maintains close ties with Telegram in terms of technical architecture and user base.
TON's technical architecture is a perfect match for Telegram, and Telegram is also embracing TON's embedding. Therefore, TON's applications can be seamlessly integrated into the Telegram platform, creating an advantage that other blockchains cannot match.
Telegram's inherent encryption gene also makes Telegram users more receptive to Crypto. This integration allows users to enjoy extremely high convenience when using TON, especially for new users. The familiar environment can effectively reduce their learning costs and greatly improve the user conversion rate.
Regarding the crypto conversion potential of Telegram users, studies have estimated that among Telegram users, about 10%-15% may be interested in or already know about cryptocurrencies.
If we calculate based on 950 million, the potential crypto users may be between 95 million and 140 million. For these potential users, the seamless integration of TON + Telegram is undoubtedly an efficient conversion method. Telegram's crypto gene is TON's greatest gift.
04 The subsequent potential of TON ecosystem
The popularity of mini programs is not limited to mini games. The success of game mini programs such as $NOT, $CATI and $HMSTR has indeed made the TON ecosystem gain huge user attention and activity in a short period of time.
Ranging from simple point-and-click mechanics to complex strategies and development systems, these games have attracted a large number of users with their easy gameplay and potential wealth.
However, as Binance has launched multiple mini-game tokens and more and more studios are joining, user education levels are improving and homogeneous mini-games are being produced in batches, user acquisition and conversion effects may show a decreasing trend, and the logic of listing coins directly through CEX also faces greater challenges.
Therefore, in the short term, TON Binance-style mini-programs may face greater difficulties.
Source: https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/toncoin
But in the long run, as the best link between Web2 and Web3, the TON ecosystem still has great potential for large-scale application in the Crypto industry.
The Diversification Potential of Mini Programs
Although mini-games are currently receiving much attention, the potential of mini-programs is far more than that. The TON ecosystem should further explore the diversity of mini-programs and develop more types of applications.
For example, in addition to the existing game-related mini-programs, TON can explore mini-programs in other fields such as education, finance, and social networking. These application-based mini-programs can attract a wider user base, especially among Telegram's huge user base, and can bring new growth points to TON.
With a deeper understanding of user needs, we can expect to see a surge in the number of mini-programs in the future. This is not limited to games, but also includes mini-programs for payment, social interaction and other practical functions.
Through these new applications, TON will be able to capture Telegram's traffic passwords more effectively and provide users with more value and choices.
Payment and Bot Synergy
In addition to mini programs, payment and Bot will also play an important role in the TON ecosystem.
For example, Tether has natively integrated USDT on TON, and users will be able to easily conduct crypto transactions and payments within Telegram.
This seamless payment experience provides greater convenience for users and further lowers the threshold for using cryptocurrencies.
Source: https://decrypt.co/148441/telegram-now-lets-users-pay-merchants-bitcoin-heres-how-works
At the same time, various types of trading bots, as the mainstream of on-chain interaction, have begun to occupy an important position in the TON ecosystem.
These bots help users participate in the crypto market more efficiently by automating transactions, information acquisition, and market analysis. The combination of bots with mini-programs and payment functions provides users with a richer way of interaction, allowing users to trade and manage assets more easily in the TON ecosystem.
05 Summary and Outlook
Binance’s continuous listing of coins has allowed the TON ecosystem to tap into Telegram’s treasure trove of traffic.
Although the simple and crude mini-program craze may be coming to an end in the short term, with Telegram's strong user base and active community, the TON ecosystem still has unparalleled advantages and potential to make a difference in the large-scale application of Crypto. We need to wait patiently for market exploration and verification.
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