What's new with Toncoin (TON), given the launch of USDT, trends on tapas, and rapid ecosystem growth
Thanks to its rapid growth, new partnerships, and the launch of many applications, Toncoin has become one of the few cryptocurrencies that have shown growth even against the backdrop of a falling crypto market. In June 2024, the coin updated its all-time high (ATH) at $8.24.
Toncoin made it to the top 10 cryptocurrencies by capitalization and ranked 8th in CoinMarketCap's ranking, surpassing coins such as Dogecoin, Tron, Cardano, Avalanche, and many others.
A new trend in the crypto market - "tappers"
It was with the TON ecosystem that the trend for mini-applications in the format of clickers or, as they are called, tappers, the essence of which is to perform simple tasks by tapping on the screen, began. The first of such apps was Notcoin, launched in November 2023, which is now one of the largest memcoins in the TON ecosystem.
The TON Foundation team supported the Notcoin project. After the successful airdrop, there was a real buzz around tapaloks, with most of the tapaloks originally planned to be based on the TON blockchain, further stimulating the growth of its ecosystem. In particular, thanks to tapalcoins and memcoin trends, TON will become the fastest-growing ecosystem in 2024.
The development of decentralized applications (DApps) based on the TON blockchain, such as:
- STON.fi decentralized exchange,
- NFT platform Fragment,
- Wallet embedded in Telegram,
- TonPad launchpad platform, and many others.
In the summer of 2024, the Telegram team launched a TON-based Web3 App store called Telegram Apps Center, where users can search for DApps suitable for them right in the messenger without worrying about security or the risk of falling for fraudulent applications. It has long been known that Pavel Durov himself chose TON as the main blockchain platform for his messenger Telegram.
USDT launch on TON
In April 2024, Tether launched an official smart contract to issue and manage the USDT stablecoin on the TON blockchain. Immediately after the release of USDT on TON, the TON wallet built into the Telegram messenger launched a promotion where users can get up to 50% annualized returns for USDT staking. Thanks to this promotion, which is still running for new users, the TON ecosystem has attracted even more liquidity.
In May 2024, after the launch of USDT on the TON blockchain, the issuing company Tether announced its partnership with the TON Foundation, which aims to create a comprehensive crypto-payment solution with the Oobit service. It is Oobit who will be the provider and will be responsible for preparing the interface of the future payment solution. So far, there is little information about the solution itself. Still, it is already known that its users will be able to pay for goods and services with stablecoins, such as USDT, through the TON blockchain, and the service will automatically convert tokens into fiat currency and send them to merchants.
In just four months since April 2024, the capitalization of the USDT token on the TON blockchain has grown to 700 million, and the number of its holders as of August of that year was more than 885 000.
TON's other successes
Generally speaking, TON has set many records over 2023-2024. For example, on October 31, 2023, the TON blockchain set a world record for the number of transactions processed per second, reaching 108 904 TPS at its peak.
However, that didn't stop the TON blockchain from stalling as early as December of that year due to an influx of activity related to the launch of TON-20, a tokenization (inscription) standard similar to BRC-20 on the bitcoin blockchain. Wallets and exchanges have even temporarily suspended TON withdrawals in this regard.
In addition, in June 2024, TON surpassed the Ethereum blockchain in the number of daily active addresses exceeding 400 000. This number has increased more than 10-fold in just one year, as in the summer of 2023, the number of daily users in the TON network was just over 32 000. The decrease in the number of active ETH addresses is also likely due to the decline in interest in retrodrops, which require interaction with Ethereum, reducing both user activity and the cost of transactions in this network, as we wrote more about in this article.
In August 2024, TON became a partner of Binance Labs, and its token was launched on the Binance Launchpool, which further attracted the crypto community's attention.
TON blockchain updates in 2024, and the team's plans to develop its ecosystem
In the summer of 2024, the project team implemented the new W5 standard, which allowed gas-free transactions in the TON blockchain. Some cryptocurrency wallets, such as Tonkeeper, have already implemented this feature, which now allows users to pay fees in the TON network in Tether (USDT) and Notcoin (NOT) tokens.
In the near future, the TON team plans to integrate the TON Teleport BTC cross-chain bridge into its blockchain platform. This will allow bitcoins to be transferred between the Bitcoin and TON networks by tokenizing the original cryptocurrency. This will allow BTC holders to access the wide opportunities of the DeFi market on the TON blockchain and the TON team to attract even more liquidity to its ecosystem.
It has also become known that TON will have its own Layer 2 blockchain called TON Applications Chain. However, the goal of this L2 solution is not so much to scale TON's core network but to create a blockchain platform compatible with Ethereum and its virtual machine. This will allow developers to simultaneously launch decentralized applications compatible with the TON and Ethereum ecosystems. In addition, after the launch of the TON Applications Chain, Ethereum developers will be able to release their applications for the Telegram Apps Center store.
