DWF Ventures: VCs interested in TON are still evaluating and need to act cautiously

Original source: DWF Ventures X account

Author: DWF Ventures

Compiled by: Golem, Odaily Planet Daily

The 2024 Asia Blockchain Summit (ABS 2024) and TON Open Summit were held in Taipei. DWF Ventures, an investment institution under DWF Labs, shared some insights from the conference regarding market sentiment, crypto liquidity, VC consensus, the TON ecosystem, and the Taiwanese crypto community. Odaily Planet Daily has compiled this for readers' reference.

Market Sentiment Changes

Narrative Shift: Many important narratives (such as re-staking, parallel EVM, AI, BTC L2, etc.) have gradually lost momentum over the past three quarters, especially with the altcoin market not fully recovering.

Return to Fundamentals: As the market becomes less active, the community tends to adopt a more conservative approach. Attention is shifting from hype and speculation to more fundamental work, such as improving protocol design, building products, and promoting real-world adoption and development.

Cryptocurrency Liquidity

New Liquidity: The crypto market hopes that the next large-scale liquidity injection can drive the industry forward, especially after the approval of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, which failed to bring the expected influx of new capital.

Altcoin Supply: Although the overall liquidity of cryptocurrencies has increased, it still cannot keep up with the growing supply of altcoins.

Next Liquidity Catalyst: In the coming months, key factors that the community is closely watching include the Federal Reserve's interest rate cuts and the U.S. elections.

VC Consensus

VC Deployment: Most VCs have slowed down their capital investments, but DWF Ventures is still actively seeking high-quality and reasonably valued investment opportunities.

Interest in TON: Many venture capital firms, including those based in the U.S., have shown interest in exploring the potential of the TON ecosystem and its projects. However, most are still evaluating which verticals and projects are worth investing in.

TON Ecosystem

Listing on Binance: During the Open Summit, Binance listed the TON token, which is a positive development for the TON ecosystem.

Developer Growth: The number of developers on TON has rapidly increased over the past two quarters, with the most significant growth coming from Chinese developers. Chinese developers are innovative in user attraction, such as Catizen incorporating daily on-chain check-ins into game mechanics and using TikTok-style viral short videos as marketing tools. Meanwhile, communities like TONX are also working to expand the developer network for TON.

About Mini Programs: TON aims to maximize their impact through its mini programs and Telegram's distribution channels. TON recently announced a strategic partnership with Cocos Engine and Tencent Cloud to leverage their game engines and resources. At the same time, Catizen launched the Citizen Game Center on TON, providing players with over 200 mini-games.

Verticals Beyond Tap-to-Earn: While TON is known for its Tap-to-Earn games (such as Notcoin and Hamster Kombat), other verticals within the ecosystem are also worth observing. These include WeChat-style mini-games, short video streaming, and social platforms (such as dating platforms).

DeFi: DeFi on TON is gradually developing, with significant room for improvement. Its TVL growth and the integration of USDT help enhance the adoption of DeFi.

Taiwanese Crypto Community

Builder-Driven: In Taiwan, the number of crypto builders exceeds that of VCs and crypto institutions. Most of them work within ecosystems like Solana and Sui, aiming to expand the community of these ecosystems in Taiwan.

KOL Community: KOL culture is particularly popular in Taiwan. Therefore, KOLs can often be seen in the community on 𝕏 and YouTube.