After the boom of "TON Mini Games" subsided, the TON ecosystem gradually faded from the main attention of the market. Unexpectedly, this time the TON ecosystem has once again become the focus of the market's attention because of another concept that has also fallen out of favour in the market for a long time - NFT.

On January 1 of this year, Telegram released its first update of the year. In this new update, the "gifts" received on Telegram have been officially upgraded to "collectables". Collectibles are NFTs that have the characteristics of traditional NFTs, such as randomness and rarity, and can also be transferred to other Telegram users or traded on NFT marketplaces.

In terms of turnover, Telegram "gifts" officially started around mid-May, and has ushered in explosive growth in recent days. The increasing number of related discussion tweets on Twitter also reflects the circle-breaking effect of Telegram's "gifts" in recent days.

From June 7 to June 9, the daily turnover of Telegram "Gifts" almost doubled, from nearly $3 million to more than $9 million

Comparing the NFT turnover of each chain, since mid-May, TON has also begun to firmly suppress Solana, ranking second in the NFT turnover of each chain.

In the past few days, TON has even beaten Ethereum, reaching a single-day turnover of nearly $10 million, about 3 times that of Ethereum

On June 9, Telegram founder Pavel Durov personally tweeted to promote Telegram "gifts", mentioning a number of Telegram "gifts" series that have risen sharply in the past month, and saying that TON Chain has thus achieved a single-day achievement of surpassing Ethereum in terms of daily NFT trading volume.

In the competition of the NFT trading market, the current largest TON NFT trading market, TONNEL, has surpassed OpenSea in terms of daily trading volume in the past 2 days. Other TON NFT marketplaces, such as Portals and Getgems, have also been on par with Blur and Magic Eden in terms of turnover in the past 2 days. Considering that the TON NFT market only has a TON chain while OpenSea and others support multiple chains, it can be said that TON stands out in the NFT market.

Judging from the transaction data of Getgems in the on-chain market below, there is currently only one absolute dragon one Plush Pepes on Telegram "gifts", which maintains a floor price of 5,100 TON (about $16,800) while ranking first in all Telegram "gifts" series in terms of weekly trading volume, which can be called "the more expensive the more sought-after".

All the Telegram "Gifts" series, which are on the weekly list in terms of turnover, are all up in the chart above. It's hard to say where Ryuuji is, but judging by the turnover and floor price, it's currently Durov's Caps, but it doesn't rule out that there will be a latecomer.

The TON NFT market is actually a Telegram "gift" market. So how did this develop? How is it different from the NFTs we are familiar with? And what do NFT whales like the Laser Cat @BitCloutCat look like?

The development of TON NFTs

On January 24th, Telegram officially supported the launch of "gifts" on the TON chain, and users can send "gifts" to the TON chain for transactions in Telegram, and "gifts" have officially become an important part of the TON ecosystem from this time. \

Telegram has also updated the "gifts" upgraded to NFTs again, making the "gifts" have social attributes. In this update, the "gift" can be worn like a badge to be displayed in the Telegram user's profile name field.

On February 14, Telegram launched nine new limited-edition "gifts" that sold out within hours and surpassed $5 million in sales.

On March 7, Telegram once again enhanced the social function of "Gifts". With this update, users will be able to wear six "gifts" on the cover of their profile in addition to one "gift" after their name.

On May 8, Telegram updated its built-in "Gift" trading function, which supports the use of "Stars" in Telegram to trade "Gifts".

On June 9, Telegram founder Pavel Durov personally tweeted to promote Telegram "gifts", mentioning a number of Telegram "gifts" series that have risen sharply in the past month, and saying that TON Chain has thus achieved a single-day achievement of surpassing Ethereum in terms of daily NFT trading volume.

The difference between TON NFT and traditional NFT

1. The main project types are different

The NFT projects we are familiar with are mainly PFPs, token airdrop vouchers, Pass cards, chain game props, and so on. In the current wave of TON NFT market, the absolute main line is the Telegram "gift". It's more appropriate to find a position for "gifts" in Web2 - QQ Show.

Judging from Getgems' weekly turnover ranking, in addition to Telegram "gifts", "Anonymous Telegram Number" ranked first and "Telegram Usernames" ranked 3rd are still "QQ logic" although they are not Telegram "gifts" - the former is a Telegram account that does not need to bind a mobile phone number, and the latter is a handle with Twitter A unique username. A beautiful name, a beautiful name.

Whether it is a Telegram "gift" or a beautiful account and a beautiful name, they are all from the official Telegram and can play a practical role in Telegram. However, the PFP from the community and on the TON chain has not improved for the time being.

2. The trading model is different

From the perspective of first-level new transactions, Telegram "gifts" are officially issued, and new series are released in the form of raids from time to time, and the "stars" purchased in Telegram are used as new currency, which is very different from the familiar minting on the chain.

It's also worth mentioning here that the new "Gift" set also has a unique opening mode and a long lock-up period. First of all, if you successfully launch a new "gift" series, the "gift" at this time is in the state of "non-NFT mystery box". Only when Telegram officially opens the upgrade function, holders can choose to upgrade, and the upgrade is equivalent to the process of turning the open picture + into an NFT. After the upgrade is complete, there is also a 21-day wait before trading (just in case.)

From the perspective of secondary trading transactions, the realisation mode of the trading market itself is also divided into on-chain and off-chain. The off-chain representative is TONNEL, which is implemented by a transaction intermediary bot to send and receive Telegram "gifts", and the marketplace is built into Telegram in the form of a mini app. The representative of the chain is Getgems, as long as the NFT on the TON chain can be found on Getgems, it may also be more in line with the operation habits of old NFT players.

At present, the turnover of the off-chain trading market is much greater than that of the on-chain trading market. Perhaps this can partly reflect the fact that the Telegram "gift" craze has considerable support from native Telegram users.

For a long time, off-chain turnover has been overwhelmingly superior to on-chain, often approaching 10 times. But in recent days, the on-chain market has also started to grow in terms of transaction volume, and the gap has narrowed, which may be one of the signs that crypto users are starting to enter more

3. Use it differently

If you use the on-chain trading market, the "gift" you get is an NFT (on-chain) state, and you need to mention it in Telegram before you can wear it. This is another reason why the off-chain trading market is more popular, and the trading bot can be directly transferred to your account in an off-chain state and worn directly, eliminating a step.

NFT whale view

Cat Laser @BitCloutCat was interviewed by BlockBeats. He said that the first time he noticed the Telegram "gift" was in March, when the price of Plush Pepe (currently the highest floor price of Telegram "gift" faucet) was about 1000 U, but he didn't notice that the "gift" was already wearable and had social attributes, which led to missing out.

After the popularity became popular, he conducted in-depth research again - there are social scenes and can show off, isn't this the "QQ show"? The primary market rush to buy new "stars" is also very similar to Q coins. Moreover, this time, celebrities inside and outside the circle, including Snoop Dogg's official Telegram account, Telegram founder and fat penguin founder Luca Netz, have all been used, and the potential audience is quite wide.

Because of the existence of the cooling-off period, there will be some price differences between the on-chain and off-chain trading markets, the on-chain can be bought and sold at any time, which will be a little more expensive, and the off-chain can be used but will be locked for a period of time before trading can be resumed.

According to Laser Cat's observations, it seems that the main players playing now are Russians and some players who play NFTs, and many discussion groups are in Russian. Although there has been some discussion in the Chinese-speaking world, it is still not much, so there is no way to say whether it is early or late. But he believes that if done well, there is a lot of potential, and there is a chance to break the circle to directly attract Web2 people, because it is a "gift" that can be given directly to friends in Telegram, and the other party does not need to have a crypto wallet in the first place. At present, in the secondary market, the series with relatively small total volume and relatively good-looking appearance have basically risen. If the creator ecology can be opened up in the future, the popularity may be even higher.

epilogue

This Telegram "gift" and the recent adventure island chain game have both brought NFTs back to the market's attention with practical applications. It's been 4 years since the hot summer of NFT, and the word NFT is no longer a golden sign for hype, but it has silently taken on more practical applications and shown its role on a larger platform. It is hoped that there will be more and more NFT apps like Telegram "Gifts" to inject more vitality into the market.