📊 TON Ecosystem Milestones: Reflecting on a Transformative 2024

TON Foundation has published its 2024 year-end report, highlighting a pivotal year for the ecosystem. Achieving a top-10 blockchain status, TON stood out with groundbreaking airdrops, which became some of the most significant crypto milestones of the year, engaging tens of millions of users worldwide. Additionally, Mini Apps established themselves as a powerful gateway for seamlessly introducing Telegram users to the vibrant TON ecosystem.

🎮 A new trend, social games, took off with Notcoin, which by mid-2024 outperformed Ethereum, Solana, Pepe, and even Bitcoin in popularity in some regions. At its peak, it became the world’s second most-traded asset and one of the top five airdrops of the year.

Alongside projects like DOGS, Catizen, Hamster Kombat, and Major, these initiatives distributed airdrops to 28 million unique on-chain wallets, with total users, including centralized exchange wallets, reaching hundreds of millions.

🪙 The TON Core team introduced an innovative mint-less Jetton approach to maximize the impact of mass-audience airdrops. With acquisition costs below $1 per user on Telegram — far lower than the $10–$15 typical in Web3 — games including DOGS and Hamster Kombat, which reached millions of users, successfully brought large numbers of Web2 users into the TON Ecosystem.

⚡️ TON’s success in 2024 has made Telegram a preferred platform for developers to launch their applications. Telegram Apps Center now serves as a central hub for app discovery and distribution, offering seamless, one-click access to apps directly within Telegram — no downloads required.

🔗 Platforms Leading in NFT Gifts Adoption

Just a few days ago, official on-chain NFT gift trading started on Telegram. With the new update, each collectible gift can now become part of TON Ecosystem and be transferred from your profile to the blockchain.

The news immediately caught the attention of developers, and some have already integrated gift interactions into their products.

✍️ Some of the services that integrated gifts recently:

💎 TON Space, a non-custodial wallet developed by Wallet team, enables gifts to become full-fledged assets that are already being actively traded on marketplaces.

Once you transfer Telegram gifts into NFTs, they will seamlessly appear in your TON Space wallet, ready for active trading.

⭐️ Major also introduced NFT gifts marketplace, following Tonnel Relayer Bot's lead. The platform emphasizes gift trading to come with zero fees on their platform, with trading is backed exclusively by the $MAJOR token.

The team has also launched NFT achievements, aiming to further boost user engagement in this space.

💬 As more platforms embrace this feature, the possibilities for gifting and trading continue to expand, offering users unique ways to engage with TON Ecosystem. Stay tuned to our channel for the latest updates and insights on how you can make the most of new exciting developments.

🥇 Telegram Contest Is Nearing the End — Time to Act

There’s only a little time left until the end of Blockchain Contest, Round 1, organized by the Telegram and TON Core teams. The total prize pool ranges from $100,000 to $200,000, with rewards distributed based on each participant’s overall contribution.

✍️ Participants are required to complete one or both tasks: Blockchain Validation, which involves C++ code optimization, and/or Trustless Bridge, where they must implement a trustless bridge between TON Testnet and Fastnet to verify transactions across networks.

Winners will also have the opportunity to compete in Stage 2, with the potential to join the Telegram or TON Core teams or receive support to launch a real TVM sidechain for TON.

👨‍💻 A new Contest was also recently announced for JavaScript developers, featuring two main tasks: rebuilding the text editor from scratch and redesigning the Chat Folders appearance.

🔥 Don’t miss the chance to participate in these exciting challenges and showcase your skills, as your contributions could play a significant role in advancing the ecosystem and making it even better.

💰 DEX: What You Need to Know About Decentralized Trading

In our recent article 'A Quick & Easy Way to Buy $TON', we briefly touched on decentralized exchanges (DEX). These platforms allow users to trade digital assets directly with one another, eliminating the need for intermediaries. Now, we'd like to take a closer look at this topic.

🔎 What distinguishes DEX from centralized exchanges:

DEXs offer notable freedom — no registration is required, allowing users to trade directly from their wallets and maintain full control of their assets.

Transparency is another key feature: every trade and action is recorded on the blockchain, meaning anyone can verify transactions.

Many DEXs use Automated Market Makers (AMM), replacing traditional order books with liquidity pools. This allows trades to occur at any time, with prices set by a formula, so there’s no need to wait for a buyer or seller to match orders.

🏛 Some DEXs available directly in Telegram:

STON.fi and DeDust.io are two exchanges, natively built on TON Blockchain, that have gained recognition for their convenient user experience.

TONCO stands out from other DEXs in the ecosystem due to its concentrated liquidity. This feature lets liquidity providers set conditions, such as contributing to the pool only when the price is within a certain range.

⚡️ With these innovative features, DEXs offer a unique trading experience, providing more control, transparency, and flexibility compared to traditional exchanges.

🚀 Steve Yun Launches TVM Ventures: A $100 Million Fund to Drive DeFi and PayFi

Steve Yun, former president of the TON Foundation, has launched TVM Ventures, a $100 million fund aimed at driving the widespread adoption of DeFi, PayFi, infrastructure, and security projects within the TON ecosystem.

Previously, Steve Yun has made substantial investments in TON in a personal capacity — this support has been significant to many creators and highly appreciated.

🪙 The abbreviation "TVM" stands for "TON Virtual Machine," which executes smart contracts on TON. The fund targets projects built on TVM, not only within the main TON mainnet but also across potential new workchains tailored for specific use cases.

The fund has emphasized as one of its key advantages TON's exclusive right to support Telegram's growing ecosystem of mini apps, which foster the development of mass-market services and products. Given this, can we await even more financial apps powered by TON in Apps Center?

📣 TVM Ventures has already invested in several TON-based startups, and the fund may play a key role in increasing the popularity of TON and its integration into everyday life.