TON Ecosystem Update: Key Developments and Innovations for March 2025
March was a month focused on steady progress and resilience. While the broader market faced challenges, TON remained on course, advancing with infrastructure upgrades and gaining traction in DeFi, payments, gaming, and Telegram-native experiences.
Missed last month’s update? Catch up on what happened in January and February in our previous Ecosystem Report.
TL;DR
Pavel Durov’s return boosted confidence in TON’s growth.
Leading VCs now hold over $400M in Toncoin.
90% validator upgrade adoption within 48 hours.
DeFi TVL surged, @wallet added new features and currencies, and RedotPay enabled USDt-TON payments at 130M+ merchants.
Miomi Game accounted for 5% of TON transactions with its sustainable Play2Win model, while the Tonnel NFT marketplace set new daily volume records.
Elon Musk’s Grok AI joined Telegram.
TON shared its 2024 Grants recap.
Ecosystem Confidence Strengthens: Durov’s Return, Investor Support
The return of Telegram founder Pavel Durov marked a long-term commitment between TON and Telegram, focused on freedom, privacy, and ownership.
Durov is FREE! #DigitalResistance prevails. pic.twitter.com/WwBN69GBEm
— TON Society (@ton_society) March 17, 2025
At the same time, leading VCs now hold over $400 million in Toncoin, much of which is based in the U.S., reinforcing institutional support and positioning TON for further expansion in America.
Infrastructure Upgrades
TON Core introduced several updates in March:
The new Pending API allows users to track blockchain operations before finalization.
TON Wallet now supports the full tech stack – Jettons, NFTs, TON DNS, and more.
TON Layer 2 Payment Network added Jetton support and outlined its roadmap, including Atomic Swaps.
90% of validators upgraded to the latest version within two days, signaling strong ecosystem unity.
DeFi Gains Momentum
Factorial, a lending protocol, nearly doubled its TVL to $29M and is exploring new incentive models. TONCO surged to $7.9M in TVL and added ZAP, a feature that allows users to add liquidity with just one token. FIVA, TON’s first yield tokenization protocol, launched and reached $1M in a matter of days.
On the trading front, bots are emerging as a powerful force. Blum activated 75,000 on-chain users through its bot, driving 13% of all TON on-chain transactions by early April.
“The next wave of DeFi mass adoption will come from community-driven copy trading.”
— Steve Yun, TON Foundation Board Member
Payments Take the Next Step
@wallet introduced trading features and expanded support for tokens like ETH, DOGE, and XRP, making it a viable alternative to centralized exchanges (CEXs). Wallet Earn is now permanent, and USDT rewards will be available soon.
TON Space also introduced fee payments using Telegram Stars, which can be purchased directly in TON Space or transferred from a user’s Telegram account.
Additionally, RedotPay integrated USDt-TON for real-world spending through Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Alipay—accepted at 130M+ merchants, including Amazon and Starbucks. A Telegram Mini App is coming soon.
GameFi and NFTs Reach New Milestones
Telegram mini-games experienced massive adoption in March: Dropee hit 3.2M MAU, DUCK × MY × DUCK reached 1.2M, and Miomi Game accounted for 5% of all TON transactions early in the month.
Telegram’s asset economy had a successful month as well: the @cryptoholder username sold for 250K TON, and Tonnel broke volume and trader records with 217K TON in volume and 5,806 unique traders.
AI on TON
The foundation is being laid for AI apps inside Telegram. Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot is now live, and TON x ElizaOS’s AI bounty program is driving developer contributions.
Wrapping Up
March focused on purposeful growth. Institutional trust is increasing, Telegram integrations are deepening, and builders are delivering everything from DeFi to NFTs to AI.
More updates are expected next month, including a deeper dive into the TON Foundation’s 2025 roadmap.