The TON craze has receded, but major actions continue: Is the super entrance consolidating or is the bubble dissipating?

1. After the Tap-to-Earn boom: TON's popularity cools down and data declines

TON(The Open Network) is a decentralized open internet aimed at bringing 500 million people on-chain. Backed by the social platform Telegram, which has nearly 1 billion users, TON achieved great success in 2024:

• Toncoin's market cap exceeds $25B, ranking in the Top 10 of crypto assets.
• The mini-game Hamster Kombat attracts over 300 million users.
• The number of new addresses on the TON blockchain reached over 700k in a single day, with active addresses exceeding 1.657M.
• Multiple Telegram mini-game assets have a market value of over $500M, and on-chain DeFi TVL surged by more than 5,500%.

However, the TON ecosystem is currently experiencing a phase of "narrative cooling period:"

• The number of new wallets and active addresses added daily has significantly declined compared to the peak.
• The core DEX ( Stone.fi and Dedust ) have seen a significant decline in TVL and trading volume.
• Multiple indicators have fallen back to levels seen before the narrative was initiated.

However, there are also positive signals:

• The number of Jetton Wallets continues to rise steadily, with a continuous accumulation of basic users.
• The number of NFT mints continues to grow, and the on-chain application ecosystem is still advancing.

According to Google Trends, the overall search popularity of TON is gradually declining, with a more significant decrease in attention to the ecosystem itself, while interest in Token prices remains strong.

A decline in data does not necessarily mean the end of the narrative. Similar examples include: Bitcoin falling back after experiencing on-chain overload due to the inscription craze; Solana and Base rebounding and reaching new highs again after a data halving, accompanied by technical optimizations and ecosystem advancements that brought users back.

Does TON also have the ability to complete a deep transformation from traffic to value after the hype subsides? Is it a temporary dormancy, or will it ultimately become a "narrative relic"? The answer will ultimately be determined by action.

2. Major actions frequent: team reshuffle, compliance and new markets, large-scale infrastructure development

2.1 Leadership Changes and Compliance Efforts: TON Accelerating Mainstream Path

In early 2025, the TON Foundation will undergo personnel adjustments, signaling a strategy of globalization and compliance.

• In January, Manuel Stotz, founder of Kingsway Capital, was appointed as the new president of the TON Foundation, focusing on the U.S. market.
• In April, MoonPay co-founder Maximilian Crown was appointed as CEO, bringing extensive global operations and compliance experience.

TON is actively communicating with US regulators and plans to launch a self-custody wallet in the US in Q2 2025. Several US venture capital firms have already held over $400 million in Toncoin.

From the global distribution of Telegram users, if TON wishes to convert them into Web3 users, it must meet the regulatory requirements of various countries. TON has already started promotions in multiple markets including Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.

2.2 TON × Telegram: Deep integration, binding ecological entry

In January 2025, Telegram officially designated TON as the唯一 blockchain infrastructure:

• Seamlessly connect mini-apps to blockchain wallets using the TON Connect protocol
• Telegram has committed to exclusively accept Toncoin as a non-statutory payment currency.
• Payment service provider RedotPay has supported Toncoin and USDt, integrating mainstream payment methods such as Apple Pay.
• TON Space wallet launches the feature to pay transaction fees using Telegram Stars.

2.3 Ecology: From Mini Game Craze to Diversified Track Expansion

The TON ecosystem is evolving from early homogeneous games towards a more diversified direction:

• Reached a strategic cooperation with Chinese gaming giant KingNet
• Hold the first large-scale game developer conference to attract studios within the WeChat ecosystem.
• The Telegram App Center has launched, showcasing a more diverse range of TON ecosystem applications.

According to RootData statistics, among the 187 TON projects recorded, about 14% focus on infrastructure.

In addition to gaming, the TON ecosystem is expanding into multiple new areas: PayFi, RWA, AI, contract trading, DePIN, etc. Institutional funds are also responding positively, with Foresight Ventures and Bitget investing $30 million in TON, and Gate investing another $10 million.

2.4 Technical Upgrade: Advancements in High Performance and Scalability

The TON roadmap for the first half of 2025 covers four major directions:

1. Accelerator mainnet upgrade: Achieving "infinite sharding" mechanism, significantly enhancing network stability and scalability.
2. Layer 2 payment network: Similar to the Bitcoin Lightning Network, focusing on instant transactions and extremely low fees.
3. BTC Teleport cross-chain bridge ( has been implemented ): Simplifying asset cross-chain transfer between TON and the Bitcoin network.
4. Technical Tool Optimization: Improve Validator Operating Efficiency and System Security

These technological upgrades aim to transform TON from a "high TPS demonstration chain" to a general Layer 1 with long-term scalability and high elasticity capacity.

3. Financial Narrative Reconstruction: Extending from DeFi to PayFi and RWA

3.1 From Trading Heat to Asset Depth: A Supplementary Lesson on TON DeFi Ecosystem

Despite the high activity on the TON blockchain, the depth of the DeFi ecosystem has not yet matched it: the TVL is only about $115 million, ranking 36th among mainstream public chains.

To address this shortcoming, TON is advancing the systematic improvement of the DeFi ecosystem:

• Core DeFi functions: cross-chain bridge, collateralized stablecoin CDP, AMM protocol, lending, and liquid staking LSD, etc.
• Advanced Applications: Yield Mining, Derivatives, Options, Yield Tokenization, Vaults, Launch Platforms, etc.
• Important collaboration: Integrating two major stablecoin issuers, Tether and Ethena.

3.2 PayFi and RWA: The Connecting Bridge from On-Chain Earnings to Real-World Value

TON is building an "on-chain revenue network" around Telegram:

• Underlying: Access real financial assets off-chain through Telegram bond funds and others.
• Middle Layer: Split, combine, and redistribute underlying yields through protocols such as USDe synthetic USD and yield tokenization.
• Top Level: Build front-end products based on high-frequency interaction scenarios on Telegram, such as Wallet Earn, Banking mini-programs, etc.

PayFi is not only a functional extension of the Telegram wallet but also an interactive hub that connects "daily payments + on-chain financial management". The RWA direction aims to build underlying infrastructure for "on-chain brokers" and "on-chain savings banks".

Four, The Future of TON: A Period of Accumulation for Super Entrance, or a Castle in the Air?

TON's current development strategy: switching from "hit narrative" to a value path of "high-frequency necessity + long-term accumulation." The core remains Telegram:

• Entry advantages: nearly 1 billion users' social entry + one-stop wallet + Telegram App Center
• Dual driving force of payment and wealth management: PayFi connects offline payments, RWA builds a new paradigm of "on-chain wealth management".
• Protocol-level nesting: The fee mechanism of TON Connect and Stars builds an abstract infrastructure for the chain.
• Technology stack implementation: mainnet upgrade + Layer 2 payment network + BTC cross-chain bridge and other infrastructure capacity enhancement

However, the future of TON still faces three major challenges:

1. The gap between user quality and financial depth
2. The application value is difficult to close the loop on-chain.
3. Uncertainty of the Compliance Route

TON is at a critical point of "from attention to value accumulation". The next 6-12 months will be a key window period for the TON ecosystem to transition from "narrative-driven" to "fundamental value support".

Conclusion

The story of TON is an attempt "from platform traffic to on-chain value." It is user-centered, hub-oriented, and uses a light experience as a weapon to launch an experiment in the popularization of Web3.

TON provides an interesting case to observe: guiding users to gradually touch the chain and use the chain through a familiar interface, lightweight payments, mini-games, and social experiences. This is not a "get rich quick myth", but a Web3 imagination that is closer to real use cases.

In a series of small cuts and real demands, TON may be nurturing the possibility of the next round of genuine Web3 large-scale transformation.