How is the TON ecosystem developing? Which airdrops are worth paying attention to?

Jessy, Golden Finance

This year, the TON chain ecosystem has achieved leapfrog development. According to the ton.app website, there are currently 701 dapps included on the TON chain. In November last year, this number was less than 600. For example, the rise in the price of TON coins is a manifestation of the development of the TON ecosystem.

Analyzing the Dapps on the TON chain, it can be found that there are relatively few financial products on the TON chain, which is different from other public chains that have strong financial effects and users are willing to lock positions. The reason is that the development focus of the TON chain is not on finance. Social, game, and payment Dapps are the main tasks of the TON chain. From this point of view, the TON chain was born specifically for Telegram.

However, this year, the TON chain has also opened up many mainstream public chain gameplays, especially emphasizing financial attributes, which has attracted the attention of many users in the circle. TON uses the currency circle gameplay to attract currency circle users and accelerate Telegram's Web3ization. Users join in and earn "airdrops", killing two birds with one stone.

The development and changes of TON ecology in the past two years

TON's development focuses on social, games, and payments, which are more in line with Telegram's development. Therefore, its chain is designed for these Dapps that have high requirements for the performance of public chains. For example, it has the highest TPS among public chains. In November 2023, it broadcast a new high of TPSDE of 104715.

With features like this, it can be seen that TON is a solution for social scenarios and Web3 entrances.

The other side of relying on Telegram's huge traffic pool is the development of TON, which is still in its early stages, which can be seen from the developer data on TON. According to the data from the Developer report, as of December 31, 2023, TON has 39 full-time developers. Currently, the number of full-time developers of TON is still relatively small, ranking behind the 50th in the public chain, even lower than EOS. And full-time developers like Solana have more than 400.

However, the TON Foundation told Golden Finance that, including part-time developers, the total number of TON developers is more than 4,000, and full-time developers are only full-time staff of the TON chain, and the TON chain team is a small and beautiful team.

Although there are relatively few full-time developers, part-time developers are indeed growing steadily. Also growing is the TON chain TVL. According to DeFillama data, on May 7, 2024, TON's overall TVL has exceeded 200 million US dollars, ranking 27, and in November 2023, it ranked 64, with a TVL of approximately 9.56 million US dollars. This data also shows that the current activity on the TON chain has made a qualitative leap.

These improvements are basically derived from the various airdrop activities launched by the TON chain itself and the Dapps on it.

For example, the TON Foundation has issued multiple airdrops, such as airdropping more than 20,000 TON to JVT holders and ANON traders, airdropping more than 100,000 TON tokens to NFT traders and holders on the NFT market Getgems, xRare, and NFT Diamonds, and airdropping about 200,000 TON tokens to DEX traders on DeDust and STON.fi.

In April, TON also launched an activity in @wallet, depositing USDT, and getting 50% interest for a certain period of time, which was coordinated with the release of USDT on TON.

There is no doubt that TON is paying attention to DeFi. Previously, the asynchronous architecture of the TON chain restricted TON's development in the DeFi field. The problems of insufficient liquidity incentives and the lack of native stablecoins on the chain have also been solved. The cross-chain bridge has become a key development task for TON. In 2023, TON also launched a DeFi liquidity incentive plan and held the Hack-a-TON hackathon.

The problems that restrict the development of the TON ecosystem have either been solved or are being solved, and there is no doubt that the future is promising.

In addition, it is foreseeable that in projects such as payment, games, and social networking that are native to Telegram, TON has irreplaceable advantages that other public chains cannot replace.  

Projects worth noting on TON

TONup

The first Launchpad platform on TON, supported by the TON Foundation, TONcoin.Fund and ForesightX. In addition to providing regular IDO services, the platform has also launched a new concept - Community Protection Program (CPP) to protect the interests of IDO community members.

Ston.fi

A Dex built on the TON chain, its outstanding feature is the promise of low fees and minimal slippage. Compared with other Dex, it is no different. Its native token is Ston.

@wallet

A bot in Telegram, you can search @wallet to open it, and then you can see this tab in Telegram's settings. Note that the wallet is a custodial wallet developed and operated by the TOP team. It is highly integrated with Telegram and can perform operations such as transfers directly in the conversation.

TON Space

After entering Wallet, you will see a TON Space Beta (if you don't see it, you can open it in Wallet's settings). This wallet is a non-custodial wallet. TON Space can be imagined as a Metamask that can be embedded in Telegram, supporting the deposit of NFTs, calling third-party applications and transactions, etc. TON Space has a web version and a built-in mini application in Telegram.

Tonkeeper

A TON wallet independent of Telegram, and also a non-custodial wallet. It was launched earlier than TON Space, and is stronger than the current TON Space in terms of stability and user experience. It is recommended to use Tonkeeper for application interaction.

 MyTonWallet

A good alternative to Tonkeeper. It has a better application experience than Tonkeeper, and supports features that Tonkeeper does not support, such as offline signing.

Tonhub

A non-custodial wallet, with advanced security and user privacy at its core, users can easily and securely access their wallets through PIN or biometric login, and send or receive TON.

Crypto Bot

Users can use Crypto Bot on Telegram to store, transfer, pay and trade tokens. In addition, Crypto Bot also has P2P market and subscription functions. When using the P2P market, buyers are not charged any fees, and sellers are charged a 1% fee; when using the trading function, both Makers and Takers will be charged a 1% fee.

TonStake

Claiming to be the first and largest staking pool for TON, TonStake provides TON stakers with an annual yield of approximately 8.51% and charges users a 10% service fee. In addition, TonStake also provides APIs for third-party service providers to integrate staking functions. As of January 3, the total value of TonStake's pledged assets exceeded $4.2 million, and more than $340,000 worth of staking rewards were distributed to users.

Orbit Bridge

Orbit Bridge announced its support for the TON network on December 1. In addition to the native asset TON, Orbit Bridge supports Ethereum, BNB, Klayth, Polygon and other chains, including USDC, USDT, MATIC and other assets, across TON blockchains. In addition, Orbit Bridge has also strengthened cooperation with the TON blockchain and developed Megaton Finance, an AMM-based DEX based on the TON blockchain developed by Ozys, which will be launched in January this year.

TON DNS

TON DNS is the domain name service provider on the TON chain. When users register ".ton", it must be at least 4 characters and no more than 126 characters. ".ton" domain name NFT is similar to the popular ENS. After obtaining the domain name, users can choose to store, give away or sell it. For domain names that are not registered in the initial stage, they will be obtained through public auctions; TO domain name NFT secondary transactions can be sold on NF trading markets such as getgems.

TON Diamonds

TON Diamonds is one of the main NFT trading markets on the TON chain. Ordinary users will be charged a 5% handling fee for trading NFTs on TON Diamonds. However, users can purchase official diamond NFTs of different levels to obtain transaction fee reductions (Small Diamond - 2% Fee, Medium Diamond - 1% Fee, Big Diamond - 0% Fee). Users holding diamond NFTs also have the opportunity to obtain more airdrops, NFT priority sales, and participate in IDO. Currently, TON Diamonds has 6 NFT project collection transactions, including TON Diamonds and StickerFace Wearables. In addition to direct purchases, users can also obtain NFTs through auctions.

Fragment

Fragment is one of TON's non-custodial decentralized NFT trading platforms, and it has also launched the Telegram advertising platform. Unlike the other NFT trading markets mentioned above, Fragmen is the most deeply bound to Telegram. It is a user name and virtual number trading platform dedicated to Telegram, and the transaction settlement unit is TON. The initial listing owner will receive all proceeds after deducting 5% platform fees and conversion fees. Users can also bid for attractive and secure Telegram usernames.  

Overall, the TON ecosystem is still in its early stages. For example, DeFi-based applications such as cross-chain bridges and wallets have only developed in the past two years.

TON's worthwhile airdrop

Catizen

is a blockchain GameFi game project created by David Mak and Pierce Tam, co-founders of Pluto Studio, with a cat theme. The project has reached cooperation with many investment institutions, including TON Foundation, Web3com Ventures, Mask Network, Y2Z, SecondLive, EMURGO Ventures, Moon Capital and Fire Phoenix Capital.

Data as of the end of March showed that more than 1 million users used Telegram to participate in the game, and more than 78,000 users used TON blockchain to deposit and sign in to play the game.

According to the token economic model of the game's token Kitty, 35% of the tokens will be used for the ecosystem and airdrops. And the official said on X that it will be airdropped to test network users.

However, the official did not give detailed airdrop details. But based on the airdrop details of some past projects, it can be inferred that the game should allocate airdrops based on the rankings and amounts accumulated in the game.

The gameplay of the game is very simple. The game will airdrop cats. Users first need to synthesize cats of the same level, and then unlock more cats of different appearances. Since Catizen is built in the Telegram software, there is no need to download any APP, and it can be played directly on computers, web pages, and mobile phones. Users only need to register a Telegram account, create and use Telegram's built-in TON Space or Tonkeeper wallet, prepare some TON (1~5 TON) and transfer it to the wallet, visit https://t.me/catizenbot?start to start playing the game.

It is recommended not to invest too much TON in this game. It is recommended to only do daily check-in tasks and Boost, which are free. Basically, you only need to spend Gas.

Moons

TON ecological acceleration project, complete certain tasks to get airdrop tokens, the tasks are as follows: follow Moons official Twitter, join Moons Telegram community communication channel, earn points by playing Moons App, and complete the corresponding tasks.

The focus of the Moons airdrop is to play the Moons app. Click "Moons App" directly in Telegram to open the Telegram applet, which is equivalent to speaking in the forum and evaluating various tokens. You can get 5 points for each evaluation of a token.

EVAA

This is the largest lending protocol on TON. For DeFi projects, what they get is not airdrops, but the interest rate of token deposits and pledges. On EVAA, users deposit Jusdt, then borrow TON, and then pledge TON to obtain tsTON (currently about 4% APY), and then deposit tsTON. In this way, not only can the amount of borrowing be increased, but also because the asset value of tsTON is synchronized with TON, the situation of being liquidated due to health coefficient is also lower. In addition, whether it is providing or lending assets, you can also earn EVAAXP points, which can be exchanged for airdrops of protocol tokens in the future, killing two birds with one stone.

TON Raffles

LaunchPad, supported by the TON Foundation. TON Raffles is an all-in-one platform for Web3 projects on TON, providing Jetton and NFT launchpads, Jetton generators, staking, etc. Moreover, the tasks to be completed are very simple.

In https://t.me/tonpromoters_bot?start=457044951, paste your TON wallet address, the link to your Twitter profile, then post the corresponding tweet and invite friends to participate. After completing the task, you will get 10 points. There should be corresponding space after the points.

TONOfficial Airdrop

TON officials said that 5 million TON will be distributed to users of the Earn function of the built-in wallet Toncoin Wallet. They only need to deposit USDT. Currently, there is a 50% interest rate for USDT deposits.

Another 5 million TON will be used to reward liquidity providers, mainly two major DEXs: STON.fi and DeDust. It is reported that rewards can be earned by providing liquidity for USDt and TON trading pairs.

1.2 million TON will be awarded to users who purchase USDt and related assets supported by TON from TON's centralized exchange partners and withdraw them to the TON chain. And before the end of June 2024, there will be no handling fees.