Thread by @alpha_pls

TON is #9 in the crypto rankings, but I feel a lot of people still know very little about the chain and what is happening.

I've spent a few weeks getting my head around the ecosystem.

Deep Dive into @ton_blockchain and the opportunities right now 🧵

Firstly, make sure you bookmark the thread. It contains a lot of useful links to get started on the chain.

I have done a detailed long form article, but will do a shorter thread here for those of you don't want to leave the comfort of Elon's app.

alphaplease.com/p/ton-the-firs…

The genesis story

TON was originally founded in 2017 the Durov brothers, who began exploring blockchain solutions for Telegram, and they subsequently raised the largest ever ICO.

TON rebranded to “The Open Network” in 2020.

The rebirth of TON

Telegram officially announced again its collaboration with TON in September 2023. From this moment, momentum kicked back in and TON climbed to become the 9th biggest crypto project with a current FDV of approximately $25 billion.

The full tech stack

The Open Network (TON) protocol consists of a variety of different components. The main ones are: TON Blockchain, TON DNS, TON Storage, and TON Payments.

The state of the network is promising

The value of a blockchain infrastructure is directly related to the strength of its network. Without participants, there is no network, and without a network, the blockchain is worthless - "the cold start" problem is real for new chains.

TON avoids this "cold start" problem by leveraging its direct collaboration with Telegram. With over 900 million monthly active users, Telegram is the perfect funnel for the TON blockchain.

TVL is growing. While it is still relatively low compared to other major chains, it has grown over 1,200% year-to-date (YTD) to reach a TVL of approximately $260 million. With all the development happening on-chain, TVL has a lot more room for growth.

There has been a big shift in trading volume since the beginning of March 2024 where it started to skyrocket.

The last killer feature of TON is the recent deployment of USDT, the biggest stablecoin, on its blockchain and in the Telegram wallet. This enables hundreds of millions of Telegram users to send & receive stablecoins in directly on the Telegram app.

To kick off this new integration, the TON team launched a campaign where users can earn up to 50% APY (Annual percentage Yield) by storing USDT in Telegram Wallet.

You can bridge USDT from Solana to TON using @layerswap - takes a couple of mins.

https://x.com/ton_blockchain/status/1781625323311734810

Ecosystem incentive - The Open League

TON foundation recently announced a new incentive program, “The Open League” which is a competition designed to help users, teams, and traders by distributing 30 million TON tokens to its community from April to July.

The Open League is simple:

TON projects compete every month to win a massive prize, while TON-chain users earn massive rewards for their activity. It is open to everyone, from crypto newbie to the most experienced one and represents a huge earning potential for users.

How to join The Open League

1. Create a wallet (Wallet, Tonkeeper, MyTonWallet)

I think is the most simple experience as it is embedded within Telegram, but seems solid, and has a good discovery page for apps.t.me/wallet
tonkeeper.com

2) Try out some apps to get free ecosystem tokens. The two mini-apps I tried were:

• @CatizenAI - Play to earn airdrop game with millions playing. Seems Catizen is big ambitions beyond this mini app.

• @thepixelsbot - TG communities battle - earn PXL while painting.

3) Try out projects competing in The Open League:

Games, DEXs, NFT protocols, meme coins, liquid staking services, and a host of many other apps that are available to check out.

The two DEXs main DEXs: & ton.org/open-league?fi…
dedust.io
app.ston.fi

4) Use the Open League bot () to provide liquidity to projects and receive boosted Toncoin rewards ($40m being distributed).t.me/open_league_bot

Quests & Airdrops

There are many quests live in the Community Bot , but there will also be more quest activities listed on TON Society

You can earn Soul Bound Tokens which may yield a lot of benefits in the future.t.me/community_bot
society.ton.org

A few parting thoughts:

And that's your intro to @ton_blockchain. Hopefully you found it useful and can make use of the links & resources to try out the chain.

It always pays to be curious in crypto.

This deep dive was in collaboration with Ton.

Read the full version here (free to sub).

alphaplease.com/p/ton-the-firs…

I also have a TG channel, which publishes weekly updates including market briefs, DeFi and airdrop opportunities & good reads.

Everything I do is always free to subscribe.

t.me/alphapleaseupd…