This year, games on TON have taken off, garnering hundreds of millions of users in a few months. TON Foundation’s Alena Shmalko and Jack Booth share their insights on how TON, after Telegram had run-ins with the SEC, got here.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

The Open Network, aka TON, has been on a tear since late February. TVL has skyrocketed 34x since the beginning of the year, reaching over $750 million as of the time of recording. The price of TON has more than tripled from about $2 to $7, and daily active addresses recently exceeded those of Ethereum in May and June. Games with fun names like Hamster Kombat and Catizen are gaining traction, and Pantera Capital, an OG crypto investor, is making its largest investments yet in TON.

In this episode, Alena Shmalko and Jack Booth from the TON Foundation discuss how TON has managed to garner this traction, especially after a rocky start when the SEC went after the original founder, Telegram.

Show highlights:

Alena’s and Jack’s backgrounds and how they ended up at TON
How TON evolved from its origins with Telegram to its current status, and how it began getting traction this year, according to Jack
How The Open League helped TON grow its TVL and other important metrics
How Telegram's collaboration with TON has evolved through time and how much they work together
Whether there are plans for TON to integrate with apps beyond Telegram
What in TON’s architecture allows it to be extremely scalable
The mechanics of Notcoin and why it has been so successful
Whether the rise of games like Notcoin and Hamster Kombat can be sustainable
The importance of USDT in Ton
When might a Bitcoin trustless bridge be deployed and why it could be significant
Whether TON is being used by criminals and what could be done to combat it
What strategies will lead TON to have $1 billion in TVL by the end of the year

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Previous coverage on Unchained of TON:
Could Telegram-Associated TON Blockchain Be the 'Next Solana' and Challenge Ethereum?
Layer 2 Networks Are Arriving on the Telegram-Associated TON Blockchain
TON Blockchain's Stablecoin Transfer Volume Reaches Record $299 Million on US Independence Day
What Is Telegram's Ads Network on TON And How Will It Impact Advertisers & Creators?

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Episode 266: Freed to Speak Truth