April brought the heat. TON crowned a new CEO, unlocked a $500M bond fund, and pulled Ethena’s $6B USDe into Telegram’s orbit—all while quietly onboarding 10K new wallets a day.

Trading bots stole the show. Sticker drops sold out in minutes. And with TON Space heading to the U.S. in Q2 and real-world assets going on-chain, the line between Web2 and Web3 just got blurrier, in the best way.

Missed last month’s update? Catch up on March 2025 here.

TL;DR

• Max Crown steps in as TON Foundation CEO, bringing operational firepower from MoonPay
• Ethena’s USDe is coming to TON, unlocking fresh ways for Telegram’s 1B+ users to save and earn in USD
• Libre and TON Foundation launch a $500M Telegram Bond Fund, crypto’s largest RWA tokenization to date
• TON Space is heading to the U.S. in Q2, just as Apple greenlights external payments (including crypto) and MoonPay unlocks Toncoin buys
• Ecosystem activity holds steady: 170K–190K daily active wallets, with 10K new non-custodial wallets joining each day

TON enters a new era: leadership, assets, and U.S. expansion

Max Crown, former MoonPay CFO and COO, has stepped in as TON Foundation CEO, signaling a push toward global scale and regulatory alignment. Ethena’s synthetic dollar USDe, which has surpassed $6B+ in TVL, is also joining TON, offering Telegram’s 1B+ users new ways to save and earn in USD.

Meanwhile, TON is leading crypto’s biggest real-world asset (RWA) tokenization to date with the launch of the $500M Telegram Bond Fund via Libre. And with TON Space rolling out to U.S. users in Q2, TON’s expansion into mainstream markets is fully underway.

TON returns to Hong Kong for Web3 Fest

TON Day brought together a growing lineup of Asia-based teams, including Televerse, RedotPay, Baza, and more, showcasing new integrations across payments and gaming. A new partnership with Chinese gaming giant KingNet (100M+ users) was also announced.

To wrap it up, TON hosted its first large-scale game dev meetup in Asia, drawing dozens of studios—many of them active in the WeChat ecosystem—now exploring how to build on TON and Telegram.

👉 Catch the full TON Day livestream

Infra and dev roundup

The original Toncoin Bridge is being retired—mission accomplished after helping move 100M+ $TON across chains. Now, users rely on native assets (USDT, jettons, and soon USDe, tgBTC) and integrations like LayerZero and Axelar.

Broxus launched TON Factory to fast-track TVM scaling, and Tonkeeper added on-chain 2FA and USDT-TRC20 transfers via Tonkeeper Battery.

On the dev side, a $20K Tact smart contract challenge attracted 1,393 participants and 59K+ submissions, driving over 500 new installs of the Tact VS Code extension.

TON DeFi continues to expand

STON.fi launched Omniston to streamline liquidity across the ecosystem, while TONCO kept its title as APY king, pushing 20%+ returns thanks to its concentrated liquidity model.

Ecosystem interconnectivity also deepened with partnerships (Factorial x Storm, FIVA x EVAA, EVAA x Tonstakers), and Telegram-native trading bots continued their rise, with Blum driving up to 25% of all on-chain activity on TON and $10M+ in weekly trading volume.

On the payments front, Vietnam’s Aliniex mini app crossed $2.4M in processed volume, and MoonPay began supporting Toncoin purchases in the U.S.

TON x Telegram

Telegram usernames and anonymous numbers crossed 100M TON in trading volume, while NFT Gifts and Stickers activity continued to climb—NFT marketplace Tonnel hit 10.1M TON in total volume, while Doodles’ NFT Sticker packs sold out in under 15 minutes.

SocialFi and GameFi? Also buzzing. Memes Lab became the first TON project to land a feature on Kaito, the Sequoia and Dragonfly-backed Web3 info hub. And SCOR, with licensing deals from MLS and NHL, hit 200K monthly active users with just two mini games. Lastly, Storm Trade launched Upscale, an AI-powered prop trading bot on TON.

Wrapping up

With major strides across DeFi, RWA, payments, and Telegram-native apps, the TON ecosystem is becoming more interconnected and accessible than ever. As momentum builds, the focus sharpens: scalable growth, deeper utility, and onboarding the next wave of users—right inside Telegram.