Cyclicality is part of any market, whether it’s fashion, cryptocurrency, or trends in blockchain ecosystems. Let’s recall the 2021/ 2022 period when the trend for NFTs in TON was just emerging. After TON mining ended, NFT collections enjoyed tremendous activity.
The first sales took place through pre-sale bots. Data was recorded in Excel spreadsheets before the appearance of smart contracts. The userbase grew rapidly: it started off with a few collections, then dozens emerged every week. NFTs gave TON a new wave of life, and now a similar process has started but on a larger scale.
The Telegram team has essentially created a ready-made NFT model with deep integration into the messenger ecosystem. Personalized collections, flexible theme selections, and global recognition make gifts the new standard for digital collectible assets.
But the key feature is emission control. If the issuance of gifts were limited, they would become exclusive assets, much like anonymous numbers. Currently, the market is still developing, and the flexible emission mechanics give it depth: there’s a need for both affordable gifts and exclusive collections with high entry barriers.
Unlike hyped NFT memes that skyrocket and then fade into oblivion, Telegram gifts have real utility. They are embedded in the messenger, supported by its infrastructure, and provide users with personalization mechanisms.
Let’s Look at the Numbers:
- Total trading volume of gifts in TON has already exceeded $29 million (~7.48M TON)
- Over 75,000 unique wallets have traded gifts
Top 3 Marketplaces by Sales Volume:
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TONNEL Marketplace (offchain): $20.6M (~5.58M TON), accounting for 71.2% of the total gift market
-
OTC ELF (offchain): $4.56M (~913K TON)
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GetGems (onchain): **$1.79M (~491K TON)
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Check out the Telegram gift dashboards
Meanwhile, the Notcoin devs enabled purchasing custom stickers, creating a new commerce within Telegram. Over 10 custom collections featuring various sticker sets have already been released, including blue-chip NFTs such as Pudgy Penguins and Bored Stickers. The
Sticker Store is not willing to lose its top position among Telegram's highest-grossing apps.
These collections already have a significant userbase and demand on other blockchains, and the Sticker Store in Telegram could become their next point of expansion. With the potential for audience migration to TON, the custom sticker market could attract not only Telegram users but also major NFT collectors.
The next step is creating a transfer mechanism, which includes launching new OTC marketplaces, with new liquid markets and more trading volumes in TON.
But the most exciting part is yet to come. Official support for NFT stickers in Telegram, which Pavel Durov announced a year ago at TOKEN2049, will create a fully integrated ecosystem market for digital collectible assets. This takes TON NFTs to a new level, towards mass adoption using organic demand.
Launching a collection doesn't just end there, now we have universal digital assets that:
- Are pre-integrated into Telegram
- Can be personalized
- Have a liquid secondary market
As the market continues to evolve, let's keep an eye on emissions, explore new mechanics, and find opportunities within the ecosystem - just like Mr. Freeman did.
Think about it,
@TonPost
