Written by: LD Capital
This article was originally published on March 28 this year
1. TON with 900 million monthly active users
The Open Netwotk (TON) was originally named Telegram Open Network. It was created by the Telegram team in 2018. After being accused by the SEC of unregistered securities issuance during the ICO era, the Telegram team paid a fine to reach a settlement and abandoned the project, which was continued to be developed and operated by the community TON Foundation. Although it has been separated from Telegram in name, the actual connection between the two is still direct. TON has always been the only public chain officially supported by Telegram and continues to be deeply integrated with Telegram. TON will continue to benefit from Telegram's huge user base and traffic entrance. Telegram will build a decentralized digital ecosystem with freedom and privacy by supporting TON.
Telegram has attracted many users around the world by adhering to the principles of freedom of speech and privacy protection. It has more than 1.3 billion registered users and nearly 900 million monthly active users (MAU). At the same time, Telegram has great advantages in acquiring Web3 users. Thanks to the relaxed speech atmosphere and regulatory environment, almost all Web 3.0/Crypto projects operate communities on Telegram, and Telegram users are concentrated in Asia, Europe, South America and the Middle East. They have obvious retail characteristics and strong demand for peer-to-peer payments, making them an ideal group of Web3 users to be converted.
Recently, in addition to Telegram founder Durove's statement that he is considering an IPO, Durove has announced the official sales channel of TON tokens in his personal channel. The Telegram advertising platform will be officially open to all advertisers in nearly 100 new countries. In order to ensure fast and secure advertising payments and withdrawals, the TON blockchain will be used exclusively. Content creators will be able to cash out their Toncoins or reinvest them to promote and upgrade their channels. These moves will accelerate the development of the TON network and truly broaden the use cases and scenarios of blockchain.
2. Viral spread of Notcoin
Notcoin is a free and easy-to-use Telegram game, in which people mainly earn coins by clicking on their mobile phone screens. Since its launch on January 1, 2024, its popularity has surged. Currently, the number of participants in the game exceeds 30 million, with an average daily activeness of 5 million, making it the fifth-ranked channel on Telegram.
According to the TON Foundation's statement and external interviews, Open Builders founder Sasha Plotvinov and her team are building Notcoin. Open Builders is an organization dedicated to financing projects on the TON blockchain. It is related to Tonstarter, which successfully raised $1.5 million in seed funding last year specifically to support projects based on the TON blockchain. In addition, TON's official Twitter account has also retweeted Notcoin-related tweets many times, and Notcoin's official Twitter account currently has 1.5 million followers.
In early March, Notcoin launched a feature that allows elite players to convert large amounts of in-game currency into NFT vouchers that can be traded before their tokens are officially issued. Players can choose to exchange 10 million or 100 million game coins for the coupon NFT. Currently, the NFT has been listed on the TON ecosystem NFT trading platform Getgems for advance trading and pricing. When the token is officially issued on the chain, the NFT can be exchanged for the token.
According to Notcoin’s game representatives, the token generation event and subsequent airdrops to players will take place in late March or early April.
3. Comparison of relevant data
According to data on the 27th, there are about 500,000 Notcoin NFTs in circulation, with a current value of 10M=9TON (calculated at 5U), a market value of approximately US$22.5 million, a total transaction volume of 2 million TON, and a transaction amount of approximately 10 million.
Since March 15, Notcoin NFT trading volume has become active. On the 25th, the recent highest transaction volume was 25,000, with an average transaction price of 10M=6.7TON and a transaction volume of US$837,500. On the 26th, 21,000 transactions were made, with an average transaction price of 10M=9.9TON and a transaction volume of US$1,039,500. The highest transaction price was 10M=66TON on March 13, and the lowest price was 10M=3.7TON on March 20.
Bybit announced on Monday that the Telegram-based meme coin Notcoin ($NOT) will be listed on its pre-market trading platform starting at 10:00 a.m. UTC on Monday. According to data on the 27th, the bybit pre-market trading price was 10M = 60–90 U.S. dollars, which is a considerable premium over NFT market transactions.
Compared with FISH, the top meme coin in the current TON ecosystem, its current market value is 39 million and its 24-hour trading volume is 2.55 million. In the NFT trading stage, Notcoin's market value and trading volume are about 1/2 of FISH.
IV. Conclusion
Currently, the rise of meme coins has become an important way for the public chain ecosystem to break through. The TON ecosystem is currently in a relatively early stage, but backed by Telegram's huge number of users, its development potential is unquestionable. Compared with the development of TVL of ecological projects, meme-driven popularity has become a more achievable method in the short term. Overall, the Notcoin project has received official support from TON and has a huge user base, and has the opportunity to become a meme coin option that breaks through the circle. However, the risk is that the current token economy is still unclear. More than 20 million US dollars of NFTs have been circulated before the secondary launch, and there is a lot of selling pressure when it is launched, but based on fundamentals, it is believed that the project has potential in the medium term.
