After the wave of "TON mini-games" subsided, the TON ecosystem gradually faded from the main market attention. Unexpectedly, this time the TON ecosystem has once again become the focus of the market, due to another concept that has long been out of favor—NFTs.

On January 1st of this year, Telegram released its first update of the year. In this New Year update, the "gifts" previously received on Telegram were officially upgraded to "collectibles." Collectibles are NFTs, which now possess traditional NFT characteristics such as randomness and rarity, and can be transferred to other Telegram users or traded on NFT markets.

In terms of transaction volume, Telegram "gifts" began to gain momentum around mid-May and recently experienced explosive growth. An increasing number of related discussion tweets on Twitter also reflect the breakout effect of Telegram "gifts" in recent days.

From June 7 to June 9, the daily transaction volume of Telegram "gifts" nearly doubled each day, rising from nearly $3 million to over $9 million.

Comparing the NFT transaction volumes across various chains, since mid-May, TON has firmly suppressed Solana, maintaining a solid second place in NFT transaction volumes across chains.

In the past few days, TON even surpassed Ethereum, achieving a daily transaction volume close to $10 million, about three times that of Ethereum.

On June 9, Telegram founder Pavel Durov personally tweeted to promote Telegram "gifts," mentioning several Telegram "gift" series that had significantly increased in the past month, and stated that the TON chain had thus achieved a daily trading volume surpassing Ethereum.

In the competition of NFT trading markets, the largest TON NFT trading market, TONNEL, has surpassed OpenSea in daily transaction volume over the past two days. Other TON NFT trading markets like Portals and Getgems have also matched the transaction volumes of Blur and Magic Eden in the past two days. Considering that the TON NFT market only supports the TON chain while OpenSea and others support multiple chains, it can be said that TON stands out in the NFT market.

From the trading data of the on-chain market Getgems, currently, the Telegram "gift" has only one absolute top item, Plush Pepes, which maintains a floor price of 5100 TON (approximately $16,800) and ranks first in weekly trading volume among all Telegram "gift" series, proving that "the more expensive, the more sought after."

All Telegram "gift" series that made it to the weekly leaderboard are showing an upward trend in the above image. The second place is hard to determine; based on transaction volume and floor price, it is currently Durov's Caps, but it cannot be ruled out that there will be latecomers.

The TON NFT market is essentially the Telegram "gift" market. So how did this develop? How is it different from the NFTs we are familiar with? What do NFT whales like @BitCloutCat think?

Development of TON NFTs

On January 24, Telegram officially supported sending "gifts" to the TON chain, allowing users to send "gifts" on Telegram for trading, marking the official integration of "gifts" into the TON ecosystem.

Telegram also updated the upgraded NFTs of "gifts," giving them social attributes. In this update, "gifts" can be worn like a badge to display in the name bar of Telegram users' profiles.

On February 14, Telegram launched 9 new limited edition "gift" series, which sold out within hours, generating over $5 million in sales.

On March 7, Telegram further enhanced the social functionality of "gifts." After this update, users could wear one "gift" after their name and also display 6 "gifts" on their profile cover.

On May 8, Telegram updated its built-in "gift" trading function, allowing users to trade "gifts" using "stars" within Telegram.

On June 9, Telegram founder Pavel Durov personally tweeted to promote Telegram "gifts," mentioning several Telegram "gift" series that had significantly increased in the past month, and stated that the TON chain had thus achieved a daily trading volume surpassing Ethereum.

Differences Between TON NFTs and Traditional NFTs

1. Different Main Project Types

The NFT projects we are familiar with mainly include PFPs, token airdrop certificates, pass cards, and in-game items. In the current wave of TON NFTs, the absolute main line is the Telegram "gifts." In Web2, "gifts" find a more suitable positioning—QQ Show.

From the weekly transaction volume leaderboard on Getgems, besides Telegram "gifts," the first place "Anonymous Telegram Number" and the third place "Telegram Usernames," while not Telegram "gifts," still follow the "QQ logic"—the former is a Telegram account that does not require a phone number, and the latter is a unique username similar to a Twitter handle. A nice number, a nice name.

Whether it is Telegram "gifts" or nice numbers and names, they all come from Telegram's official source and can serve practical purposes within Telegram. Meanwhile, community-driven PFPs on the TON chain have not yet shown any progress.

2. Different Trading Models

In the primary market for new releases, Telegram "gifts" are officially issued, with new series released sporadically in a surprise manner, using "stars" purchased within Telegram as the currency for new releases, which is quite different from the familiar minting process on-chain.

It is also worth mentioning that the opening mode for new "gift" series is quite unique and has a long lock-up period. First, if you successfully acquire a new "gift" series, it is in a "non-NFT blind box" state. Only when Telegram officially opens the upgrade function can holders choose to upgrade, which is equivalent to the process of turning the blind box into an NFT. After the upgrade is completed, there is a 21-day waiting period before trading can occur (to prevent…

In terms of secondary market trading, the trading market itself is divided into on-chain and off-chain. The off-chain representative is TONNEL, which uses trading intermediary bots to send and receive Telegram "gifts," with the market embedded in Telegram in the form of a Mini App. The on-chain representative is Getgems, where any NFT on the TON chain can be found, possibly aligning better with the operational habits of veteran NFT players.

Currently, the transaction volume of off-chain trading markets far exceeds that of on-chain markets. This may partially reflect that the Telegram "gift" craze has significant support from native Telegram users.

For a long time, off-chain transaction volumes have overwhelmingly dominated over on-chain, often approaching a 10-fold difference. However, in recent days, the transaction volume of on-chain markets has also begun to grow, narrowing the gap, which may be a sign that more crypto users are starting to enter.

3. Different Usage Methods

If using an on-chain trading market, the "gift" received is in NFT (on-chain) status and needs to be transferred to Telegram to be worn. This is another reason why off-chain trading markets are more popular; trading bots can directly transfer the gifts to your account in an off-chain state for immediate wearing, saving a step.

Views of NFT Whales

Laser Cat @BitCloutCat accepted an interview with our Rhythm BlockBeats. He mentioned that he first noticed Telegram "gifts" in March, when the price of Plush Pepe (currently the highest floor price for Telegram "gifts") was around $1000. However, he missed out because he didn't realize that "gifts" could be worn and had social attributes at that time.

After the hype built up, he conducted further research—there are social scenarios and the ability to show off, isn't that just "QQ Show"? The primary market's new releases using "stars" and Q coins are quite similar. Moreover, this time, celebrities from both inside and outside the industry, including Snoop Dogg's official Telegram account, Telegram founder Pavel Durov, and Luca Netz, the founder of Fat Penguin, have all gotten involved, indicating a potentially broad audience.

Due to the cooling-off period, there are some price differences between on-chain and off-chain trading markets. On-chain transactions can be bought and sold at any time but tend to be a bit more expensive, while off-chain transactions can be used but will be locked for a period before trading can resume.

According to Laser Cat's observations, the main players currently seem to be Russians and some NFT enthusiasts, with many discussion groups being in Russian. Although there have been some discussions in the Chinese-speaking community, they are still relatively few, making it hard to determine whether this is early or late in the game. However, he believes that if done well, there is significant potential, with opportunities to break into the mainstream and attract Web2 users, as "gifts" can be directly sent to friends on Telegram without requiring the recipient to have a crypto wallet from the start. Currently, in the secondary market, series that are relatively scarce and visually appealing have generally seen price increases. If the creator ecosystem can be opened up in the future, the hype may rise even higher.

Conclusion

This time, Telegram "gifts," along with the recently launched adventure island chain game, have both brought NFT back into the market's attention through practical applications. It has been almost four years since the summer when NFTs were all the rage, and the term NFT is no longer just a buzzword for speculation; instead, it has quietly taken on more practical applications, showcasing its value on larger platforms. We hope that NFT applications like Telegram "gifts" will continue to increase, injecting more vitality into the market.

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