The Path to Decentralization: The Gateway 2024 Keynote

If you’re excited to learn more about TON Blockchain’s efforts in decentralization be sure to check out “The Path to Decentralization Keynote” presented by Steve Yun (President of TON Foundation) and Jack Booth (co-founder of TON Society). 

In this 15 minute video they’ll dive into the goals that TON set out for itself to move away from an organizational model that is foundation-oriented to one that rewards competitiveness, innovation, collaboration and community. Decentralization is a cornerstone of the Web3 ethos and by pursuing down this road we hope to ensure a resilient environment that will be adaptive to the ever-changing online landscape. 

Fireblocks Introduces Support for Jettons and Launches $200,000 Grant 

Fireblocks continues its integration into the TON Ecosystem fabric through the support of Jettons. Now, thousands of digital asset businesses on Fireblocks can securely custody, trade, and develop new products and services in the TON Ecosystem.

Some of the use cases this integration can benefit include: 

▪️Consumer Apps: Build secure Telegram Mini Apps that leverage Fireblocks on the back-end for secure TON and Jettons key management.
▪️Payments Companies: Expand TON-based payment services.
▪️Exchanges and Fintechs: Add support for Jettons for retail and institutional customers.
▪️Institutional Trading Firms: Access new trading opportunities within the rapidly growing TON Ecosystem. 

To further drive innovation and adoption, Fireblocks is also launching a $200,000 grant program aimed at empowering developers and businesses to build in the TON ecosystem using their solutions. 

Read their blog to learn more! 

Recap of The Open League Season 6!

Check out the numbers behind the Open League Season 6: 

▪️$1,2M Normie and Degen airdrops have been finalised! Check your final reward here. Eligible Normies will get Toncoin to their wallets early next week.

▪️A total of 1.8M Normie and 217.7K Degen badges were minted and 20,094 wallets are eligible for the Normie airdrop, and 1,947 unique wallets earned rewards in the Degen campaign.

▪️83 TON Apps attracted 3.9M unique active wallets, marking a 390% increase from Season 5.

▪️In Season 6, TON DeFi protocols grew significantly, achieving $6.9M in new TVL and $103M in volume.

▪️Special recognition goes to the App League winners: Blum, Catizen, Yescoin, TON Station, Getgems, which earned $75,000, $50,000, $35,000, $25,000, and $15,000 in additional airdrops for their communities.

For more information on Season 6 read the Open League channel post.

TON Memelandia Launches $5M Grant program

TON Memelandia is launching its new Grant Program aimed at supporting TON Memepads as core pillars of the thriving memecoin space. 

Meet the first grantees to receive $500,000 each:

▪️ GasPump
▪️ BigPump by PocketFi
▪️ TONPump by HOT Wallet

Based on the announced eligibility criteria, 3 projects have been chosen for the first test cohort, but applications remain open to embrace other compliant bonding curve launchpads! 

See details here!

The Open League New Year Special Edition is Calling!

Let’s go full DeFi! 20 days, $1,500,000 airdrop for users, DeFi League for projects, 20+ teams participating.

Season 7 will be about:

▪️The New Year Airdrop for TON users - a single leaderboard where users are ranked depending on how much they trade and provide liquidity into DeFi.
▪️DeFi League: TVL Squad & Volume Squad for TON DeFi protocols - two projects leaderboards where teams are ranked depending on their contribution to the total TVL/Volume generated during the season.

Applications for projects to join the DeFi League are now open and will close on November 22th.

The Open League New Year Season will kick off on November 27th and last till December 17th.

Blog post with the full concept description here.

Detailed instructions and links to apply here.

Gateway Recap: DeDust Keynote Address 

Back at The Gateway 2024 we caught up with Nick, the CEO of DeDust.io at his keynote address to learn more about their unique position in TON’s ecosystem of DeFi products. We’ll take a look at DeDust’s work to create a customizable tool that allows users to implement their own code within DeDust’s architecture. 

They are also introducing a grant program for builders to further the development of DeDust’s DeFi proposition. 

Watch the full video for a full grasp of what they are building!  

TON Quest Platforms: JVault

As part of our TON Quest Platforms series, we’re introducing JVault — a popular staking platform and dynamic quest hub. Each of its campaigns brings in over 1,000 TON in prizes or unique SBTs, giving users the chance to earn XP that will play an important role in the platform’s upcoming update.

JVault recently teamed up with DeFi projects to help users quickly climb the Degen Airdrop rankings and continues to seek new collaborations and exciting quest campaigns. Discover more here.

TONCO Launches the First DEX with Concentrated Liquidity on TON

After a successful testnet phase, TONCO DEX is opening its doors to the entire TON community.

By improving user experience and driving liquidity flow, TONCO strengthens TON’s position within DeFi, benefiting both seasoned users and newcomers.

Built by Algebra Labs, TONCO leverages CLAMM technology to deliver:

▪️Maximized capital efficiency by up to 20x. This was achieved by focusing liquidity on active trading ranges and boosting fee earnings.
▪️Minimized slippage, providing deeper liquidity at key price points.
▪️Advanced tools for targeted liquidity management strategies.

Additionally, the smart contracts running things behind the scenes have been audited to prevent exploits from occurring. 

Still not convinced? To celebrate the mainnet launch TONCO introduced active incentive programs that provide:

▪️ Farming rewards for USDT/TON pool (500 USDT/day) 
▪️ A trading campaign with 3500 USDT in prizes among top traders and liquidity providers 

Try the new DEX yourself and secure the rewards for early adopters! 

The Late Night DeFi Campaign Roundup

The Late Night DeFi Campaign attracted 1 million TON TVL as promised, with over $50,000 airdropped to 1500 top liquidity providers. Coordinated with top projects like TBook, Tonstakers, bemo, STON.fi, EVAA, and DeDust, the campaign was designed to help users to better understand DeFi while engaging with The Open Network. 

Three wallets that scored the most points based on their staked/provided amounts will get $1,000 each while dozens of participants will receive between $500 and $100. 

Thank you for participating! Continue engaging as the next airdrop is coming!

Telegram Apps Center Introduces the Streak System

We all like being rewarded and now Telegram Apps Center is bringing their all-new Streak System, which benefits users by awarding them for completing simple tasks. Grow your streak and earn: 

▪️NFTs,
▪️TON tokens, 
▪️and exclusive prizes. 

Monitor your progress by watching your personal Moai statue evolve from bronze to gold and beyond! 

As always, this is a community endeavor with every completed task and every friend referred fueling the reward pool as Telegram redistributes TON tokens and NFTs to the most engaged users! 

Finally, this brings us to…The Grand TON Lottery!  

With over 150 winners and a massive 2,000 TON Grand Prize, this is your chance to win big while making every action count. Don’t miss your shot - the adventure ends December 26! 

Start your streak today at @tapps!

Gateway Recap: Andrew Rogozov @TOP Keynote

Get comfortable as we revisit the keynote given by The Open Platform’s very own Andrew Rogozov (CEO) who will guide us through 2024 and: 

▪️the milestones in the development of MiniApps
▪️the onboarding of millions of new users
▪️announce the new features of TON Space

Most importantly, however, Andrew gives us a glimpse into the future of the platform and how TON aims to introduce the next wave of Telegram users to Web3. This will happen by simplifying onboarding processes and energizing developers and creators building on TON to continue community building and redistributing value to users! Watch the video to learn more.   

TON Gateway 2024 The Open Platform Keynote: The Future of MiniApps

Plank Pushers x TON Society SBT Launch!

Plank Pushers is teaming up with TON Society to bring a first-of-its-kind game-integrated SBT system! The game created a progression based SBT system where users can unlock new SBTs when climbing up the leaderboard and level up their onchain reputations on TON while unlocking exclusive rewards and perks. 

From Rookie Rider to Peak Pusher, your SBT evolves with your gameplay and actions, building a permanent, public record of your achievements and status within the Plank Pushers community.

And it gets even better! Starting tomorrow, jump into a massive PUSH Competition — the ultimate way to supercharge your SBT reputation while competing for incredible rewards.

Start your adventure with PlankPushers today!

Introducing Our New CDN for Mini Apps!

We’re excited to announce that TON Studio has launched a free CDN! Here’s why you’ll love it:

▪️Advanced Caching: On-edge caching ensures efficient data distribution in active regions.
▪️Technology Independence: Deploy data from any storage (private repos, IPFS, etc.) using the mate CLI tool.
▪️Version Control: Seamless project management with versioning support.
▪️Robust Security: Protection against DDoS (L3, L4, L7), WAF, and bots.
▪️Multi-Support Compatibility: Web, Gzip, and WebSocket support.
▪️Generous Limits: Up to 50MB per project for all your mini-app needs.

Enhance your Mini App experience with our cutting-edge CDN!

Available now — try it out and see the difference.

Bithumb lists TON

South Korea’s second largest crypto exchange, Bithumb has added support for the Korean won market for Toncoin (TON). Trading opened at 20:00 local time on November 21.

We’re thrilled about the opportunity to engage with Korean crypto enthusiasts and connect with a dynamic community excited about TON solutions!

Learn more here.

Latest Scoop from TON Memelandia 

The meme battlefield is heating up and TON Memelandia have the numbers to prove it! Head over to their channel for a full rundown of what’s been happening! 

Also, TON Memelandia will be shortly announcing a fourth grantee to their Memepad Grant Program, following in the footsteps of TONPump by HOT Wallet, BigPump by PocketFi, and GasPump.

Finally, an AMA that will answer all your questions is coming to X today, Nov 22nd, 18:00 UTC! Set a reminder.

They’ll be sharing tips on how to conquer Meme Mountain and spill the beans on what the next narrative will be. Plus, whispers of secret boosts and extensions... are getting louder! See you there! 

TON Ecosystem Roundup

As TON continues to evolve and expand, this week brings several updates from five ecosystem projects: Storm Trade, Satoshi Universe, QSTN, Rent Tycoon, and Cookie3.

Let's take a closer look at their latest updates — learn more.

Blum Memepad Officially Launches! 

We’ve got news for meme lovers as the Blum Memepad has officially launched to their 87M users! 

Create your own token in just three simple clicks. 

Here's how it works:

1. Launch Blum mini app
2. Click on Memepad
3. Launch your token!

Look at what Blum memepad achieved so far:

▪️$32M+ in total trading volume
▪️50K tokens have been deployed
▪️80 memes have already reached STON.fi!

Also, in just a few days since the initial app rollout, Blum has managed to meet the eligibility criteria and secure a $500,000 grant from TON Memelandia! It has thus become the fourth participant of their new grant program for memepads!

And you thought TON Memelandia couldn’t get even more exciting? Blum is now part of Cabal Arena - you can register your team and deploy memes on Blum to compete for the $750K prize pool! Learn more here. 

Ready to get started? Register your team in the Cabal Arena and explore the new Blum Memepad today! The time to make your meme masterpiece is NOW! 

Updates from The Open League: Hall of Fame, Official Partners and DeFi League Season 7 News

Let’s take a look at what’s been happening in The Open League! 

Website update: 

▪️Two new tabs have been added to The Open League website allowing you to check their Official Partners and the Hall of Fame showcasing the winners from previous App and DeFi League season.  

Applications for DeFi teams for Season 7:

▪️Applications for the DeFi League will close today at 23:59 UTC, marking the start of the active preparation for the projects' leaderboards and the $1.5M airdrop for their active users. Don’t forget, Season 7 kicks off next Wednesday, November 27th. Important details for previous season participants and new entrants can be found in The Open League channel. It’s crucial that all teams read these details!

TON News #16 — watch now!

00:08 - TON Memelandia launches a $5M Grant Program
00:47 - Fireblocks’ Support on Jettons
1:26 - Streak System Campaign by Telegram Apps Center

Hex Trust to Support DeFi, Custody and Staking on The Open Network

Hex Trust integrates with TON and becomes one of the first custodians to offer full access to TON custody, staking, Jettons custody, and TON DeFi support via TON Connect. By doing so, Hex Trust helps TON users to securely manage and trade their assets while broadening access and driving institutional adoption. 

An important element of this cooperation is the regulatorily compliant nature of Hex Trust that opens up new avenues for institutional clients to participate in the rapidly growing market of decentralized financial services that are found on TON while also accessing over 950 million Telegram users. 

To learn more about this integration read their blog article.