tl;dr
Steve Yun, a board member of TON Foundation, discussed TON's recent developments and its unique position in the blockchain landscape with BeInCrypto during the 2025 Web3 Festival in Hong Kong. The interview covered TON's $400 million secondary market investment, technical upgrades to their asynchron...
TON Foundation's Steve Yun discussed recent developments and strategic initiatives in an exclusive interview with BeInCrypto at the 2025 Web3 Festival Hong Kong. The interview covered TON's $400 million secondary market investment, technical upgrades to their asynchronous architecture, strategic initiatives in DeFi and gaming sectors, and plans for the US market and the Asia-Pacific region. TON's Total Value Locked dropped by 72% due to discontinuing liquidity pool incentives, and they are now focusing on developing a comprehensive DeFi ecosystem. The $400 million investment in Telegram happened over several years in the secondary market and does not directly benefit the foundation. TON's 2025 Layer-2 network and "Accelerator" mainnet upgrade deliver substantial enhancements to TON's asynchronous architecture, a new programming language, and specialized workchains. TON's bridging mechanism for BTC, tgBTC, boosts liquidity in TON's DeFi environment and addresses centralization concerns. TON's advantages in DeFi include focusing on payments and solutions like tokenizing Telegram bonds. TON has recalibrated its strategy to actively engage with US companies and exchanges and is making the non-custodial portion of TON Space wallet available to US persons. In the Asia-Pacific region, TON targets mini-app developers, focusing on regions with established super-app ecosystems.
TVL ON TON HAS DROPPED BY 72%. The decrease in Total Value Locked primarily stems from TON's decision to discontinue liquidity pool incentives. Their analysis confirms the effectiveness of incentives, but the fundamental challenge is ensuring sustainable liquidity after incentives end. TON is busy developing a comprehensive DeFi infrastructure to address this, including lending protocols, derivatives, perpetual futures, concentrated liquidity DEXs with limit orders, stable swap mechanisms like Curve, and dynamic liquidity solutions similar to Maverick. These tools aim to create an ecosystem where liquidity naturally wants to remain, with the possibility of reintroducing incentives once the comprehensive infrastructure is in place.
HOW WILL YOU USE THE RECENT $400M INVESTMENT WITH TELEGRAM FOR WEB3 INITIATIVES? The $400 million investment happened over several years in the secondary market and does not directly benefit the foundation. The beneficiaries are Toncoin holders and miners who determine the allocation of these proceeds independently. While the foundation hopes these funds benefit the ecosystem, it's ultimately up to the individual holders. This investment was the consolidation and reporting of secondary market sales, not a direct investment into the foundation itself.
WHAT KEY FEATURES WILL YOUR 2025 LAYER-2 NETWORK AND “ACCELERATOR” MAINNET UPGRADE DELIVER? TON has implemented substantial enhancements to its asynchronous architecture, making transactions faster and more scalable. They are also developing a new programming language to replace FunC and working on specialized chains to enable new use cases. These improvements collectively make TON more developer-friendly and capable of supporting diverse applications.
HOW WILL THE TON BTC BRIDGING MECHANISM IMPACT YOUR ECOSYSTEM? The tgBTC bridging mechanism substantially boosts liquidity in TON’s DeFi environment, standing out due to its unique implementation approach. Unlike other wrapped Bitcoin solutions, tgBTC cannot be frozen or confiscated by the token creator, appealing to Bitcoin holders who value decentralization. This allows them to utilize their Bitcoin in DeFi without compromising on its core value of censorship resistance.
WHAT ADVANTAGES DOES TON HAVE IN DEFI AND GAMEFI? TON Foundation’s focus is on payments and DeFi solutions, including the tokenization of Telegram bonds, which generate annual returns and may offer discount access to potential Telegram IPOs. While they continue supporting gaming initiatives due to Telegram’s social aspects, they believe the crypto gaming paradigm as initially conceived may have reached its conclusion.
WHAT ARE YOUR US EXPANSION PLANS UNDER CHAIRMAN MANUEL STOTZ'S LEADERSHIP? TON has recalibrated its strategy to actively engage with US companies and exchanges about listing Toncoin and TON-based assets, including stablecoins. They are encouraging stablecoin issuers to natively mint on TON and have made the non-custodial portion of TON Space wallet available to US persons, which was previously restricted.
WHAT’S YOUR MESSAGE AT HONG KONG WEB3 FESTIVAL AND ASIA-PACIFIC STRATEGY? TON targets mini-app developers in regions with established super-app ecosystems. This strategic positioning is aimed at leveraging the Asia-Pacific region’s familiarity with integrated digital ecosystems, making it fertile ground for TON’s mini-app ecosystem within Telegram.