It could just be like that ton
-7.34%
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Open Network was originally called Telegram Open Network and was launched by the popular messaging app in the cryptocurrency community with over 900 million users. However, the blockchain drew the ire of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the open source community continued development while Telegram continued to support the network.
In February, Telegram announced a 50/50 ad revenue sharing with channel owners. But most importantly, the revenue is paid in TONcoin, TON’s native token, and is carried out through the network.
According to Telegram’s CEO, Telegram channels generate 1 trillion views per month, but at the time of the ad sharing launch, only 10% of channels were monetized by advertising. Content creators can cash out their TON coins, but they can also reinvest them in their channels by promoting or upgrading their channels using the tokens. The idea behind this plan was to onboard key Telegram users to the TON ecosystem.
Tether also launched the USDT stablecoin on the network in April, giving TON users access to the largest dollar-pegged stablecoin. The launch was a success, with TON supply in USDT already surpassing 500 million last week, just over two months after it first launched on the blockchain.
The network has seen a surge in activity and users recently due to the popularity of Telegram-based cryptocurrency mini-games that utilize TON. “Notcoin,” “Hamster Kombat,” and “Catizen” are all examples of these tap-to-earn games where users can earn in-game currency that can eventually be converted into real-world airdrops. A similar phenomenon has been seen with Aptos’ “Tapos” game, which shows how compelling these clicker games can be for users looking to earn tokens.
But as TON’s popularity and adoption has grown, so has Toncoin. Toncoin is currently the 9th largest cryptocurrency by market cap, with a market cap of $18 billion, more than doubling since the beginning of the year. Likewise, TON’s total locked value has skyrocketed, surpassing $600 million in just three weeks after reaching $300 million earlier this month.
Many are bullish on TON because of its huge user base and easy integration into the Telegram app. Crypto VC firm Pantera Capital is already raising a second TON fund after making its largest ever investment in the network in May.
And we can see the explosive growth of TON in usage metrics. TON’s 7-day moving average of transactions has grown from 645,000 at the beginning of the year to 5 million, and the 7-day moving average of active addresses has skyrocketed from 26,000 to over 340,000.
The trend on this chart has been volatile, but the overall direction seems to be up. It is too early to tell if this level of growth is sustainable, but it is likely that TON has reached a point where activity will continue to be higher than before 2024.
This is an excerpt from The Block’s Data & Insights newsletter, where we dig into the numbers that make up the industry’s most thought-provoking trends.
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