With 1 billion Telegram users backing it, a comprehensive overview of the TON ecosystem on the eve of its explosion
TON has a technology logic centered around high-speed applications: transactions are directly on-chain based on messages, supporting peer-to-peer interactions. TON's dynamic multi-sharding architecture also facilitates the scalability of its applications, with the initial concept aimed at serving a large number of users.Written by: 1912212.eth, Foresight News
Thanks to PAKA investment advisor Sally and Ton Foundation Vivi for their help and suggestions on this article
When we talk about Ethereum, we discuss re-staking protocols, L2 scaling solutions, and occasionally think of various high-performance L1s when the Gas fees on the Ethereum mainnet soar. However, there are only a handful of public chains that have truly entered the public eye and are widely discussed. Solana is one of them, known for its thriving ecosystem, numerous meme coins, and strong wealth effect. Cosmos is another, with its ecosystem of application chains continuously growing, creating wealth effects on top of it. NEAR has recently gained market attention due to its AI hotspots, NEAR DA, and chain abstraction. Public chains like Monad and Berachain, which have not yet launched but are already attracting significant attention during their testnet phases…
In today's market, where the speed of rotation in hot sectors is extremely fast, attracting users to stay is increasingly difficult. Moreover, the public chain TON, with a TVL of only 50 million USD, seems insignificant compared to the billions or hundreds of billions of dollars in other public chains or L2s.
However, TON is taking a different path; it does not rely on DeFi. With over 900 million monthly active users on Telegram, TON focuses more on ordinary user experience, social interaction, application tools, and gaming. For instance, it has a native wallet embedded in Telegram, allowing ordinary users to smoothly enter the crypto world. Various simple mini-games, while straightforward, can attract considerable participation by integrating social factors, NFTs, and more. Particularly, many small tools are highly favored by developers and users alike.
TON has a technical logic centered on high-speed applications: transactions are directly on-chain based on messages, supporting peer-to-peer interactions. TON's dynamic multi-shard architecture also facilitates the scalability of its applications, with the initial concept being to serve a large number of users.
From the day of its inception, TON has attracted widespread attention, faced a lawsuit from the U.S. SEC that stalled its plans, and was eventually taken over and developed by the community, experiencing ups and downs along the way. During the subsequent bear market, it was largely ignored for a long time. However, everything began to improve last year, with the fourth-quarter report from 2023 showing that the TON developer community has risen to 13,000 people, and tAPP's monthly active users in December have increased by 75% month-over-month, reaching 12,000.
Where are the gold mining opportunities for TON? This article will outline the ecosystem for you.
Infrastructure
Launchpad
A Launchpad platform on TON, with investment institutions including DWF Labs, Kingswap, etc. So far, about 13 IDOs have been conducted.
TonUP is a Launchpad platform, and Foresight X has partnered with TonUP to launch a funding program aimed at supporting innovative projects within the TON ecosystem, with a total amount of 200,000 USD.
A simple ICO platform that is easy to operate, featuring a full-function dashboard to manage token sales.
XTON creates a seamless bridge between blockchain networks via Telegram and has recently launched a native cross-chain launch platform tailored for the TON ecosystem. This dynamic platform aims to simplify interactions between crypto users and decentralized applications (dApps) directly through Telegram messaging services.
Wallets
An embedded wallet in TG that supports peer-to-peer transactions and features such as invoicing.
The official native TG embedded wallet that allows users to purchase cryptocurrencies via bank cards, currently supporting payments in USD, EUR, and RUB. Its self-custody wallet TON Space supports trading in Bitcoin, TON, and stablecoins.
A mobile wallet available on both Apple and Android app stores, supporting browser plugins and NFT displays.
A mobile app wallet available on both Apple and Android app stores, supporting TON staking. Users can start without registration or providing personal information. It is compatible with all existing TON wallets.
A non-custodial mobile app wallet available on both Apple and Android app stores, supporting TON staking and block explorer functions, as well as interactive price charts, address books, anti-spam filters, and integrations with third-party services like CoinMarketCap, tonscan.org, and Getgems.
An open-source browser wallet. This application supports web functionalities: Jettons, NFTs, TON DNS, TON WWW, TON Proxy, TON Sites, etc., and also supports biometric authentication via Mac, Yubikey, or mobile Touch ID.
In addition to the above native wallets, there are also third-party wallets, including Bitget Wallet, Gem, SafePal, Coin98 Wallet, Trust Wallet, and Ledger.
Cross-Chain Bridges
A cross-chain bridge protocol that allows seamless transfer of crypto assets across multiple ecosystems, including TON, Ethereum, Solana, L2, CEX, etc.
A cross-chain NFT bridge currently supporting over 30 chains, including ICP, Hedera, NEAR, Solana, etc.
Currently, Rubic aggregates over 70 mainstream chains, over 200 DEXs and bridges, and supports one-click exchanges of over 15,500 assets at the best rates, highest liquidity, and trading speed. Additionally, it provides tools for dApps to achieve cross-chain exchanges.
A cross-chain bridge between TON and WTON.
A cross-chain bridge on the BNB Chain.
DeFi
Staking
A staking protocol that ranks first in TVL among all applications. The current annualized rate is 4%, with a total staked amount of over 27 million TON.
A staking protocol that ranks second in TVL, with 31.42 million USD. The total staked amount exceeds 7.35 million TON, with an annualized staking rate of 4.24%.
A decentralized open-source TON staking protocol, with official data showing over 9,000 active users and over 30 million TON staked, offering 7 staking pools with a minimum staking amount of 50 TON and no upper limit.
A decentralized TON staking protocol with an annualized rate of 4.76%, currently with over 970,000 TON staked.
Lending
An NFT lending protocol that currently ranks first in TVL among lending protocols, with over 20,000 NFTs staked and a total lending amount of 1.4 million USD. The latest NFT used for staking loans is from the Diamond series.
An embedded TG lending protocol, incubated at the TON Starter Launchpad and a finalist in the Hack-a-TONxDoraHacks honor.
DEX
An AMM trading protocol with a TVL exceeding 1.7 million USD, ranking first among ecosystem DEXs, supporting cross-chain transactions between ETH, BNB Chain, and TON. The largest trading pair pool is SCALE/TON, reaching 5.9 million USD.
STON.fi (STON)
An AMM trading protocol that will soon launch cross-chain functionality. Currently, there are 120 pools, with over 21.12 million STON staked.
A derivatives protocol supporting 100x leverage, with a TVL exceeding 300,000 USD, supporting cryptocurrencies, stocks, forex, and commodities (oil, gas, etc.), with a total TVL exceeding 1.79 million USD.
An AMM trading protocol with 53 active pools and a total TVL exceeding 3.62 million USD, with the highest annualized rate reaching 35%.
A trading protocol on the Open Network that has supported limit order books, embedded in TG.
A multi-chain Web3 asset management and social trading platform that supports token trading across 15+ chains, including inscriptions.
In addition, there are also DEXs like Uniswap, DODO, PancakeSwap, etc.
Stablecoins
A decentralized over-collateralized stablecoin protocol, which is community-driven, secure, and cryptocurrency-backed, and can also be used as a lending mechanism. It supports liquid staking coins from Bemo, Tonstakers, Hipo, and Ton Whales as collateral, suitable for TON holders who do not wish to sell.
Others
TonTogether is the first project of the Launchpool on TonUP, primarily focused on a no-loss lottery. As the name suggests, a no-loss lottery means that participants do not incur any losses even if they do not win. TonTogether will stake the TON tokens deposited by users into Tonstaker to earn interest from node staking rewards, then randomly draw from this income to reward lucky winners.
CEX
Supports fiat currencies, including Mastercard and Visa cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.
A Spanish crypto exchange operating since 2014, currently supporting trading of 250 tokens.
Supports purchases with VISA and Mastercard credit cards, including USD, GBP, EUR, and other fiat currencies.
Additionally, it includes Bitget, MEXC, OKX, Matrixport, Huobi, Wallet Bot, etc.
Games
It allows users to earn Notcoin points rewards by simply pressing buttons in the app, while inviting users or directing traffic to other apps through tasks. By joining teams and directing traffic to various channels, users can earn more points. Notcoin can already generate advertising revenue through its traffic directing function.
A social casual game based on the Telegram Mini App, where players can play together through group team functions and earn rich rewards through weekly and seasonal leaderboards.
A large 2D MMORPG game, invested by the TON Foundation, based on H5 technology, claiming to have a global user base of 730,000. The official version of Ton was launched on November 21, 2023.
A football play-to-earn blockchain game embedded in TG.
An NFT-driven game where players compete for tokens and rewards. Engage in rock-paper-scissors battles, join communities, or chat directly with opponents to increase winning chances by purchasing eggs on the Getgems NFT marketplace. The last standing egg wins the grand prize.
A project that received grants from the TON Foundation in Q3 2023, where players need to plant their Gattomons and mine a large amount of resources in Gatto.
A P2E game based on Telegram on TON, a medieval role-playing game involving NPC skill upgrades and item mining through third-party quests. Many in-game activities focus on social interaction. In battles, you can choose which part of your body to defend and which part of the enemy to attack. Opponents can also choose what to protect and where to attack.
A play-to-earn platform where users can access over 200 games by connecting or creating accounts, including play-to-earn games, free games, and arcade malls.
By developing plots, purchasing, and training Mars robots to work on these plots, players can earn NFT licenses, allowing access to more complex buildings. Additionally, players receive achievement rewards in NFT form at any stage of development, providing gameplay advantages and the ability to sell them in the project marketplace.
A play-to-earn game where players earn rewards by battling opponents.
A play-to-earn game that rewards players with PUNK tokens, embedded in TG.
Players need to collect NFT chess pieces and upgrade warrior equipment for battles, as well as develop castles, create equipment, and gems.
WowFish
A social casual game based on the Telegram Mini App, where players can play together through group team functions and earn rich rewards through weekly and seasonal leaderboards, making it to the first batch of projects in the Ton ecosystem's Asian incubator.
Boomup
A social tower defense game based on the Telegram Mini App, where players build, defend, and enhance personalized defense towers using TON-based NFTs, providing opportunities for social engagement and rewards, also making it to the first batch of projects in the Ton ecosystem's Asian incubator.
NFT
Platforms
Anome
An NFT asset issuance and lending protocol, yet to launch its official website.
For buying and selling anonymous numbers, where transaction IDs are not linked to SIM cards, allowing users to log into Telegram using their blockchain accounts. These numbers are only applicable for Telegram.
TON's domain system allows users to assign short, readable names to crypto wallets, smart contracts, or websites. The official website has a minimalist style, similar to ENS.
An NFT trading marketplace platform supporting various audio, video, or other creative NFTs. Additionally, the official site has launched a sale of 15,000 frog-themed NFTs.
The largest NFT trading platform in the TON ecosystem, allowing trading of Notcoin NFTs, Telegram virtual numbers, Ton diamonds, and other NFTs.
Fragment is a Telegram virtual number trading platform launched by TON in 2021, also allowing trading of Telegram IDs. Due to its unique anonymity, it has an annual trading volume exceeding tens of millions of USD.
TOTKIT
An NFT collectibles data statistics and analysis platform, now available in web version.
Collectibles
A total of 9999 PUNK NFTs, imitating PUNKs on Ethereum, with colors more vibrant than the originals.
3D robot-themed NFTs, with a floor price of 7.5 TON, a total transaction volume of 194,000 TON, and a total issuance of 6,700 pieces.
Cartoon whale-themed NFTs, totaling 10,000 pieces, which can be used for membership privileges, including access to Ton Whales decentralized equity pools, network systems, and the latest news from Whales Corp.
A total of 17,350 pieces, featuring mermaid-themed art. Holding different types of mermaids grants different rights. The project team airdrops benefits to NFT holders every two weeks.
AI art humanoid images, NFT holders can also participate in protocol revenue sharing, enjoy priority and discounts for future IDOs, and access various benefits such as entering DeFi education clubs.
Cartoon-themed NFTs, where holders can choose to "eat" chat messages based on their attributes or prevent being eaten.
Tools
Browsers and Analysis Tools
A data query tool for the TON chain, supporting market data, currencies, prices, etc., with an interface style similar to CoinmarketCap.
A blockchain explorer designed for TON, providing a comprehensive and user-friendly experience for NFTs, tokens, staking, etc., with a minimalist interface style.
A simple style browser where users can input addresses, domain names, or transaction information for queries.
A professional browser for NFT data, allowing users to view total NFT counts, wallet addresses, trading volumes, etc., and supporting ranking confidence, 24-hour trading volume changes, etc.
An NFT data dashboard displaying information such as block height, transactions per second, and total block accounts, also supporting API.
An information display tool, including various project categories, 7-day UAW, TX, and transaction volume information.
Displays trading pools with high trading volumes over 24 hours, with some real-time data refreshing every 30 seconds.
VPN
A VPN tool featuring privacy, speed, anonymity, and security. New users can use it for free for 30 days, supporting both computer and mobile devices.
Supports TON payments for fees and is available on Apple, Microsoft, and Google app stores. It has over 5,900 servers in more than 90 countries/regions.
Developer Tools
A crypto advertising platform that allows sending checks using cryptocurrencies and attracting live audiences to your channels/groups, preventing bots and multiple accounts, categorized by country, embedded in TG.
This tool allows developers to build decentralized applications on TON without dealing with the underlying complex technology.
A TON development plugin supporting Fivet and FunC languages.
A cross-chain information protocol, with the latest updates showing support for ETH, NEAR, Solana, TON, and Aurora. Its testnet supports NFT cross-chain.
Verifies contract addresses on TON.
A one-click QR code generation tool.
TON developers can access TonFura's Web3 developer platform, which simplifies dApp development by providing development interfaces and built-in tools related to the TON ecosystem, saving developers time.
Social
Earn rewards by publishing exclusive content and sending messages to followers; the more likes received, the more TON earned.
Tonex
A Web3 social protocol supporting chatting, posting, and NFTs.
A step tracker that connects to wallets to record exercise data and earn rewards.
Easily raise funds through smart contracts, embedded in TG.
Zero-Knowledge Proof
The first zero-knowledge project based on TON. Open-source and similar to Tornado Cash, it allows users to anonymously transact transfers, including NFTs. So far, the total number of transactions has exceeded 23,000, with a total TVL exceeding 2.2 million USD.
Security
Utilizing current formal verification technology, AI auditing technology, and manual audits by security experts, CertiK scans and monitors blockchain protocols and smart contracts to ensure their security. CertiK is headquartered in New York City and was founded by two professors from Yale University and Columbia University. Known as a pioneer in blockchain security, CertiK uses formal verification technology, AI auditing technology, and manual audits by security experts to ensure the safety of blockchain protocols and smart contracts.
A blockchain security company established in early 2018, deeply engaged in threat intelligence for many years, primarily serving clients through security audits and anti-money laundering tracking and tracing services, building a solid threat intelligence collaboration network.
A scalable security auditing protocol aimed at discovering vulnerabilities in Ethereum smart contracts.
MEME
Ton Fish (FISH)
The first social meme token, with over 17,000 holders and over 3,300 traders, currently with a 24-hour trading volume exceeding 1.8 million USD.
Ton Inu (TINU)
A meme coin with a dog theme, collaborating with FISH, with a total market cap of over 3 million USD and a 24-hour trading volume of 38,000 USD. It also issued an NFT series with a total of 444 pieces, a floor price of 56 TON, and a total transaction volume exceeding 4,000 TON.
Inscriptions
Tonano (NANO)
The first inscription on the TON ecosystem, with over 20,000 total holders and a total market cap of 2.75 million USD.
Gram20 (GRAM)
The Gram20 protocol is the second inscription protocol on TON, differing from TON20 by offering greater usability and more features. Gram20 utilizes the Telegram mini-program frontend to execute the deployment, minting, and transfer of inscriptions, and has launched a trading market to provide trading services for users. The Gram20 protocol supports limiting the time interval for users to mint inscriptions, imposing penalties for early minting, and setting start times, enhancing the basic inscription protocol.
TONOT combines the concept of inscriptions with Telegram's social attributes, creating fair inscriptions for every community user. By binding and activating Telegram accounts, TONOT ensures the authenticity of users minting inscriptions.
FairTON is a fair-first, community-native, and full-lifecycle project launch platform. FairTON is not limited to the BRC20 inscription protocol, focusing on "localized" innovations in TON, eliminating the Achilles' heel of off-chain indexers, and achieving primitive operations for inscriptions at the smart contract level.
TownSquare aims to effectively connect Telegram's vast user base of 800 million with the inherent privacy, transparency, openness, and sovereignty of the web3 world. The project focuses on developing the necessary infrastructure and key applications within the TON ecosystem. TownSquare plans to launch the first decentralized open-source inscription indexer.
