Text by: Shigeru
Introduction: With the arrival of summer 2024, the TON network has shown unprecedented growth momentum, with daily active addresses, transaction volume, and total locked value (TVL) reaching new highs. This series of achievements indicates that the golden decade of the TON ecosystem has begun. Focusing on the "TON Ecosystem Explosion", the CGV Research team deeply explores TON's internal innovation and external market factors, and analyzes its key driving force to become a leading blockchain platform.
Every day in June 2024, TON's records, whether in terms of users, transaction volume, or TVL, are constantly being refreshed:
TON’s daily active addresses have exceeded $ETH for several consecutive days;
TON’s total locked value (TVL) exceeds $600 million, a 1,000x increase since 2024;
In 47 days, $450 million of $USDT was issued on TON;
Steve, chairman of the TON Foundation, proposed that the sign of mass adoption of encryption would be the birth of the first TON mini-application with 100 million Telegram users; Hamster Kombat achieved this the next day.
The CGV Research team believes that the arrival of TON summer 2024 benefits from the dual benefits of "TON inside" and "TON outside".
The driving force behind TON
——Wallet Innovation: In July 2023, TON launched a new wallet payment function, allowing users to conduct various transactions and payments through the TON wallet, improving the user experience. Then in September, TON launched TONSpace, a self-hosted wallet that allows users to manage their own private keys and assets. In December, a secondary entrance to the wallet was added to the Telegram app, allowing users to use the TON wallet more conveniently within Telegram.
Token lock-up strategy: In early 2023, the TON community and validators voted on the chain to freeze the wallets of inactive miners, which accounted for about 21% of the total supply and will be locked until February 2027. In October, the community launched the TON Believers Fund, a five-year lock-up plan where users can choose to donate or deposit their tokens in smart contracts. This move locked up 26% of the supply, and a total of about 47% of TON tokens were locked for three to five years, effectively reducing the circulating supply in the market and stabilizing the token price.
——TON native USDT deployment: In April 2024, Tether announced the introduction of USDT to the TON network, which added USDT-related transactions and financial activities to TON, providing strong support for DeFi applications. The issuance of USDT on TON quickly surpassed Cosmos and Near, becoming the network second only to Tron, Ethereum, Solana, and Avalanche.
- Breakthrough in blockchain performance: On October 31, 2023, TON reached a peak of 104,715 transactions per second in a public live performance test, processing a total of 107,652,545 transactions. This performance was verified by Certik, marking TON as one of the fastest and most scalable blockchains in the world.
——Marketing: In the spring of 2024, TON attracted a large number of users and market attention by launching the#OpenLeagueSuper League with a total prize of $150 million. In addition, the profit-sharing strategy jointly implemented by the TON Foundation and Telegram, as well as the listing of Notcoin on several major exchanges, greatly enhanced its market performance and brand influence.
TON External Factors
——Pantera’s large investment: In May 2024, Pantera invested the largest single investment amount in history in the TON network, which not only proves the recognition of TON’s technology and market potential, but also may attract more capital attention and enhance the market’s confidence in the TON ecosystem.
——Global competition environment and market demand: With Musk's X application planning to launch encrypted payment functions in mid-2024, TON faces pressure from global competitors. In addition, the entire crypto market is in urgent need of new market narratives and development directions. The TON ecosystem relies on its innovative technologies and applications to inject new vitality into the market.
——Demand for new narratives: The crypto industry needs new narratives and directions. The TON ecosystem provides new vitality to the market through the growth of users and transaction volumes brought about by social fission and flywheel effect.
In summary, the CGV Research team believes that the TON ecosystem may show four major development trends in the future. These trends will shape the unique position of the TON ecosystem and may have a profound impact on the entire crypto industry.
Trend 1: The black hole effect brought by Telegram’s full ecosystem expansion
Telegram started out as an instant messaging tool and has now grown into a multi-functional platform that integrates social, payment, service subscription, and mini-programs. With the addition of TON, Telegram is rapidly moving along a similar trajectory.
Upstream (Infrastructure and Development Platform): TON provides a strong infrastructure and software development kits (SDKs) to attract developers to build and deploy decentralized applications (DApps), which may weaken the development resources of other blockchain platforms.
Midstream (application layer and services): Customized stablecoin solutions, micropayment systems, etc. in the TON ecosystem, as well as the ability to seamlessly access mainstream crypto assets through official cross-chain bridges, provide users with a one-stop asset management and trading platform.
Downstream (user adoption and market expansion): Telegram’s large user base provides TON with a market access point, enabling it to integrate crypto into the broader economy by building relationships with partners such as financial institutions, media companies, and retailers.
Trend 2: No regulatory barriers + fastest public chain + flywheel effect, making the TON ecosystem unlimited
TON's global service capabilities, free from the restrictions of financial regulation in specific countries or regions, combined with its high performance and the flywheel effect of user growth, indicate that the potential of the TON ecosystem may have no upper limit.
Traffic monetization: Telegram’s traffic advantage will bring huge monetization potential to TON, especially in decentralized markets such as Fragment, which has already contributed to significant transaction volume.
NFT Market: Telegram’s stickers are converted into NFTs and traded through the TON blockchain, heralding a huge emerging market.
Web3 project revenue realization: mini apps on TON are expected to become high-income Web3 projects, leveraging their large daily active user base
Trend 3: Joining of global financial giants: Mainstream recognition of TON ecosystem
As the TON platform matures and cross-chain functions are realized, it may attract the attention of traditional financial institutions, prompting them to explore blockchain technology and cooperate with TON.
Innovation in Financial Services: Financial institutions may migrate their services to or collaborate with TON to take advantage of its low costs and high efficiency.
Stablecoins and financial products: Financial institutions may develop new lending, insurance, and investment products on TON, and even create stablecoins pegged to specific assets.
Trend 4: Changes in investment logic: The non-essentiality of token economy
The maturity of the TON ecosystem may change the investment logic of the primary market, making tokens no longer a must for crypto projects.
Technology and business model: Projects may rely on more mature technology and business models to attract users and investors rather than relying solely on token economics.
Regulatory adaptability: Projects that do not issue tokens may find it easier to adapt to the regulatory environment and avoid potential legal risks.
Investment analysis: Future evaluations of TON ecosystem projects may focus more on actual user data and business performance, such as daily active users (DAU), user retention, and average revenue per user (ARPU), rather than simply focusing on the unlocking and distribution of tokens.
These trends indicate that the TON ecosystem will not only consolidate its position in the crypto space, but may also attract participation from a wider user base and traditional financial institutions, ushering in a new stage of development.
Conclusion
The rise of the TON ecosystem foreshadows the future development direction of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. With the deep integration of Telegram and the innovation driven by TON, we foresee that a new ecosystem is taking shape, which will not only change our understanding of financial services, social interactions and digital assets, but also bring unprecedented convenience and opportunities to users around the world.
