Toncoin was flying high in the first half of 2024, driven by the rise of Hamster Kombat, Notcoin, and other tap-to-earn ecosystems. TON prices pumped, rising from roughly $2 in early 2024 to $8 by June 2024.
This rising valuation pushed the coin into the top 10 as FOMO kicked in, making it one of the best cryptos to buy.
The over 300% surge from January 2024 seemed to mark TON’s peak, but then August happened, and the coin failed to recover despite an impressive bull run in Q4 2024.
(TONUSDT)
In August, French authorities detained Pavel Durov, accusing him of enabling money laundering on Telegram, a top messaging platform deeply integrated with Tonchain.
As a result, TON prices fell. Something else happened, too: DeFi activity on the Tonchain network began shrinking. By mid-July 2024, DeFiLlama data revealed that Tonchain managed nearly $770 million worth of assets. Fast-forward six months, and this figure stands at $170 million—a nearly 70% drop.
(Source)
Mirroring this is the contraction in TON prices from their 2024 peaks and growing concern among TON holders that the ecosystem might struggle to recover in the coming months.
Yet, on X, one analyst has pointed out an interesting development: while DeFi total value locked (TVL) is dipping noticeably, the number of users on Tonchain is increasing.
Why Is Toncoin TVL Dropping Amid Rising User Participation?
This raises the question: Why is TVL dropping despite increasing user participation?
In his findings, the analyst noted that more users are pulling funds from Tonchain DeFi dApps, primarily because TON prices are dumping. They are seeking to stay safe from speculative DeFi plays. Instead of engaging in yield farming or liquidity provision, which can be risky, they are shifting funds to secure options, mostly staking.
Solid data supports this trend. Over the past few trading weeks and months, nearly 84 million TON has been staked, but because of liquid staking, users still have access to liquidity.
This shift means that although TON holders are cautious, they are confident in the network’s stability and are willing to secure it while earning a decent yield—though the reward is relatively lower than what other DeFi protocols could offer.
Shifts in Active Wallets and Ecosystem Challenges
Coinciding with this development is the increase in the number of active addresses on the Tonchain network.
According to Ton Stats, the number of active wallets now stands at over 40.5 million and has been rising steadily over the last six months.
(Source)
At the same time, over the past month, the number of daily active wallets has been falling, averaging around 170,000 at press time. With the number of daily active wallets shrinking, Tonchain is burning fewer TON from posted transactions.
It got worse for Tonchain when Tapswap, a top DeFi protocol on the network, chose to airdrop tokens on the BNB Chain, pivoting away from the original chain.
Tapswap developers said the BNB Chain, the second-largest smart contracts platform after Ethereum, has a more expansive ecosystem and user base even with fewer tokens, including some of the best meme coins to buy in 2025.
The TapSwap team changed their mind to run the $TAPS token on $BSC, so the $TAPS token will be run on $TON, but what about the Paws team, have they changed their mind yet to go from $SOL back to $TON?
By the way, $PAWS will be listed on exchanges from the first days, let’s see…
— Mr. Satoshik (@MrSatoshik) February 11, 2025
The move was a blow for Tonchain and heaped even more selling pressure on TON even if Tapswap quit the BNB Chain soon after last week’s TGE event.
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Toncoin drops amid spike in Tonchain active user addresses
- TON slides from Q3 2024 highs
- Tonchain attracts more users
- More TON staked as users reduce exposure in DeFi
