How to Capture Early Benefits: A Must-Read Guide for Beginners Navigating the TON Ecosystem
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How to Capture Early Benefits: A Must-Read Guide for Beginners Navigating the TON Ecosystem
Biteye teaches how to get involved in the TON ecosystem and seize potential airdrop opportunities.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Viee, Core Contributor of Biteye
Editor: Crush, Core Contributor of Biteye
Community: @BiteyeCN
* Approximately 2500 words, estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Are you FOMOing into TON yet? With the recent flood of black-and-white dog memes and points farming everywhere, it feels like the bull is back. 😂
Today, Biteye will show you how to dive into the TON ecosystem and seize potential airdrop opportunities.
We’ve organized this thread into a mind map—feel free to grab it if needed.
01 Wallet Overview
The first step to participating in the TON ecosystem is using a wallet. Currently, 49 wallets support the TON chain.
Here are two of the most popular ones: Wallet and TON Space
Wallet
Wallet is Telegram’s native custodial wallet, similar to WeChat Wallet embedded within the app settings. Users can directly use Wallet for token swaps. It supports on-ramping via P2P or bank cards.
TON Space
TON Space is a self-custodial wallet launched by the TON Foundation and integrated into Telegram. It can be accessed through the "Ton Space" option inside Wallet. Users can directly connect to TON-based dApps using TON Space. In addition to seed phrases and private keys, users can also recover their wallets via email or their Telegram account.
Once completed, congratulations—you’re all set to explore the TON ecosystem!
Additionally, recently you can interact with 40 TON ecosystem projects such as Catizen, Cat Gold Miner, STON.fi, and Tomarket on Bitget Wallet with 0 gas fees, and have a chance to share in $1 million in rewards.
02 Tokens
In terms of market cap, $TON stands at $18 billion versus $SOL's $66 billion. If $TON could take off like $SOL and become an Ethereum killer, it still has roughly 3.7x room to grow.
$NOT has a market cap of $1.6 billion, ranking second on the TON chain and already within the top 50 cryptocurrencies. It's highly talked about. The TON ecosystem is still relatively immature, with few other standout tokens—better opportunities may come later.
In short, if focusing on tokens, only $TON and $NOT stand out so far—and both are already listed on exchanges.
03 DeFi
Needless to say, while public chains come and go, DeFi strategies remain constant—DEXs, lending, staking, NFTs, etc.
A blockchain becomes active and attracts capital only when these platforms exist, paving the way for wealth creation stories.
Unlike Ethereum Layer 2s that see large-scale migration of leading projects, TON still has significant room to grow in DeFi diversity.
Here are several notable DeFi projects:
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Top DeFi project: Ston.fi (DEX) @ston_fi
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Top lending protocol: EVAAProtocol @evaaprotocol
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Top stablecoin: Aqua @aquaprotocolxyz
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Top staking platform: TonStakers @tonstakers
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Top cross-chain bridge: Orbit @Orbit_Chain
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Top launchpad: Tonstarter @ton_starter
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Top NFT platform: Getgems.io @getgemsdotio
You can also check out the top 10 DeFi projects by TVL on DefiLlama. Common strategies include yield farming arbitrage or interacting with protocols to position for potential airdrops.
04 Gaming
Gaming is driving the current wave of TON activity. Simple, lightweight games combined with one-click sharing on Telegram enable rapid and effective viral spread.
Many gaming teams are flooding into TON, easily acquiring large numbers of real users—listing on a major exchange could bring massive gains.
Here are some popular TON-based games:
Catizen: Cat Synthesis Mini-Game
Players run a cat café where customers pay gold after petting cats. This gold can be used to buy new cats. Two cats of the same level can be merged into a new breed, one level higher. The goal is to synthesize higher-level cats and earn more gold.
🔗 TG Link: https://t.me/catizenbot
Hamster Kombat: Hamster Battle
A tap-to-earn game where players tap a hamster (representing a simulated exchange CEO) on screen to earn coins. Players unlock extra rewards through community engagement and can boost passive income by purchasing upgrade cards.
🔗 TG Link: https://t.me/hamster_kombat_bot
Blum: Gamified Trading Platform
Founded by former Binance executives, players earn points by participating in Farm and Drop games. Inviting new users grants additional Drop game tickets and bonus points.
🔗 TG Link: https://t.me/BlumCryptoBot
Yescoin: Notcoin’s Twin Brother
Very similar to Notcoin—collect coins and complete tasks by swiping your phone screen.
🔗 TG Link: https://t.me/theYescoin_bot
Pixelverse: Cyberpunk-Style Battles
Users raise robot pets and engage in battles (PVP and PVE modes), adventuring across different maps in the game center.
🔗 TG Link: https://t.me/pixelversexyzbot
These games can all be found on the growth leaderboard at TGStat.
https://tgstat.com/
05 Tools / Data Platforms
Telegram Apps Center
An app store supported by the TON Foundation. Projects are vetted for security, and you can view weekly trending apps.
🔗 Link: https://www.tapps.center/
TON App
Third-party TON app discovery platform
🔗 Link: https://ton.app/
TGStat
Telegram channel analytics site. You can check which Telegram channels have the most subscribers and fastest growth, helping identify trending projects.
🔗 Link: https://tgstat.com/
TONStat
Provides key metrics for TON, with daily updates on network statistics including total transactions, performance, and total fees.
🔗 Link: https://www.tonstat.com/
06 Background and Opportunities of the TON Chain
The development of the TON chain has been quite eventful.
In 2017, Telegram founders Pavel Durov and Nikolai Durov began developing the Telegram Open Network (TON) project, with its token named Gram.
In 2020, Telegram announced its withdrawal from the TON project. The project was renamed “The Open Network,” and the token was changed to Toncoin.
In 2023, Telegram officially announced that TON would be its preferred Web3 infrastructure, beginning integration efforts.
Features like Telegram’s built-in wallet and payments via TON have greatly accelerated mass adoption.
Despite overall market pessimism recently, TON’s TVL has grown over 20x in just four months, now surpassing $700 million.
The TON ecosystem is gradually expanding, covering various sectors including CEX, DEX, wallets, NFTs, and gaming, as shown below.
Of course, compared to established blockchains like Ethereum and Solana, TON still has much room for improvement. However, its value cannot be measured solely by TVL. Its unique advantage lies in Telegram’s massive real user base—a natural edge unmatched by other chains.
With strong incentives and support from the TON Foundation, the ecosystem is showing promising momentum and is worth long-term attention and participation.
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