The market cap of The Open Network (TON) has seen a remarkable growth trajectory; starting at $7.8 billion at the beginning of this year, it has surged to an impressive $19 billion, securing TON a spot among the top ten most-valued cryptocurrencies. The factors contributing to this growth include close integration with Telegram, a lucrative incentive program, the success of play-to-earn games like Notcoin, and the launch of Tether’s stablecoin USDT on the network.

Strategic partnerships and successful funding raises by well-known industry players have played a pivotal role in the recent surge in TON's popularity. Notably, Pantera Capital's investment in TON in May 2024 and the potential for another investment by the firm have significantly bolstered confidence in TON. Animoca Brands, a leading game developer and publisher, is another key investor, and they are also the largest validator on The Open Network. Their strategic view of TON's blockchain is integration with Telegram as a tool to onboard hundreds of millions of users to web3; thus, they see it as a distribution play.

Key Insights:

1.  Total Value Locked (TVL) on TON has increased by 1433% in the last six months

2.  The number of daily active addresses this year has grown by 1259% to 357,277

3. Tether has now issued $548 million USDT stablecoin on the TON network

4. Competitive ecosystem reward program has attracted new users and developers

5. The network hosts more than 650 DApps that can leverage 800 million Telegram users

Overview:

The Open Network is a unique layer 1 smart contract network with a Block Proof-of-Stake (BPoS) consensus mechanism. Originally developed by Telegram, a messaging application, as a high throughput blockchain to handle hundreds of millions of users, it has since transitioned to an open-source project managed by the broader community. Its unique features and capabilities make it a promising platform for mass adoption.

Toncoin is the native token of the ecosystem, which can be used for network operations and in DApps built on TON. It is an ecosystem of several components: a decentralised network, DNS, storage, proxy, and payments, all connected by the underlying core blockchain protocol. TON is focused on enabling widespread cross-chain interoperability while operating in a highly secure and scalable framework.   

The following are some of the key metrics of the TON cryptocurrency as of 1^st July 2024:

Network Growth:

The TON network has experienced a significant surge in activity this year. There are now more than 38 million accounts on the network, and it is processing about 4.2 million transactions daily. The number of active addresses has skyrocketed from 26,286 at the beginning of the year to an impressive 357,277 in June 2024, marking a phenomenal growth of 1259% in less than six months.

The TON ecosystem powers several DApps, staking, and other DeFi activities and their adoption is evident in the growing TVL numbers. The total value locked across the TON blockchain has increased from just 6 million TONs at the beginning of the year to 92 million TONs, a substantial growth of 1433%.

It translates to a TVL of about $704 million, spread across different applications that include wallet providers, decentralised exchanges, developer tools, games, launchpads, NFT collections, social media, and VPNs.

Transaction fees are another important indicator of network activity growth. At the end of last year, fees paid per day were close to 3000 TONs, but they have now reached approximately 15,000 TONs, a fivefold increase. These fees account for transaction and storage fees and are used to reward block validators who ensure the network's security.

Ecosystem Growth:

One of the most interesting components of TON’s recent growth is its ecosystem reward initiative, the Open League (30 million Toncoins). It is a large-scale competition program within the TON community designed to attract new users and developers. The program is divided into different seasons, each focusing on unique goals and appropriate rewards for participants. These rewards are issued in Toncoin, and at the end of each season, the participant with the highest Toncoin balance wins. The Open League also includes a hackathon aimed at facilitating the inflow of new liquidity and increasing the adoption of TON projects.

Such ecosystem incentives can be a powerful driver of user adoption, but the bigger challenge is keeping users engaged once onboarded. This often requires efficient network performance, smooth user experience, and useful applications.

One important integration that will help retain existing users and attract new ones is TON’s integration with Tether to enable native access to dollar-denominated stablecoin. Before this, users and applications had to rely on bridged versions of USDT, USDC, and DAI. This constrained stablecoin liquidity, as it is inefficient and riskier. The launch of native USDT unlocks significant liquidity throughout the TON ecosystem and enables DeFi applications to scale and operate more optimally. As of this writing, Tether has issued $548 million USDT on the TON blockchain.

The TON network has 347 active validators from 28 countries, collectively staking 538 million Toncoins, 21% of the total circulating supply. More than 650 decentralised applications are in the TON ecosystem, and they have the potential to tap into Telegram's massive 800 million daily active users.

Looking Forward:

Further success of The Open Network will depend on the right use of ecosystem incentives in the hands of strong builders who will create novel applications on the network rather than simply re-iterating what has already been built elsewhere. Applications leveraging TON’s high transaction speeds and low fees could potentially lead to large-scale adoption through Telegram and enhance the functionality of a decentralised network.

Telegram already has a thriving ecosystem of ‘Mini Apps’, which includes chatbots and mini-games. So, it is easier to integrate crypto in these mini apps, which in turn exponentially improves adoption. We have already witnessed the success of such use cases through trading tools like BonkBot and StormTrade, which generate millions in revenue through Telegram’s user interface.

The roadmap for future development focuses on increasing the network’s scalability and user-friendliness and improving infrastructure to attract developers to innovate. The network's flexible architecture allows it to adapt to various business needs, potentially enabling partnerships and integration with large-scale businesses seeking blockchain solutions.