🎁Gifts as a reason to panic? Or is this the best Web3 onboarding yet?
Along the hype around Telegram Gifts in TON, skepticism is also growing. We hear things like "it's just gambling," "referral farms pushing tons of volume," "price is inflated." It makes it seem like just another bubble. But let’s take deeper look.
What if Telegram Gifts are the next Notcoin?
Not "play-to-airdrop," but rather trade-to-airdrop or gift-to-onboard. Instead of a shallow motivation like "click the button", it offers real engagement with Web3: collections, trading, marketplaces, visual identity. And most importantly, it's all inside the world’s second-most-popular messenger, not in yet another web app users will abandon.
What are the gifts really meant for?
- Attracting new users through emotion, excitement, collections, visual interest, and of course, FOMO
- Onboarding through mechanics, not tutorials
- Expanding the familiar Telegram environment into a Web3 experience
We’re now seeing Twitch streamers join the movement, whose audiences are trained on emotional, gamified mechanics - and they’re drawing their viewers into Telegram Gifts and into the TON blockchain. They're actually bringing in new users. Just look at the monthly active user (MAU) charts.
Sure, most transactions are off-chain for now, but that was just the first step. It’s simple, convenient, and works for an audience that’s likely hearing the word “blockchain” for the first time. From there, they'll start exploring: stickers, wallets, tokens, games, services. This is a smart way of gradual onboarding - not dumping it as “here’s DeFi, go use it.”
TON backend is powering all this magic. Gifts are the first visible Web3 use case in Telegram that combines utility, market dynamics, and visual appeal. NFT gifts live right inside Telegram profiles - already more valuable than most JPEGs out there.
Will Telegram launch NFT stickers right away? Probably not, as it would dilute liquidity. The current focus is on Gifts. Splitting volume between formats would hurt metrics and complicate promotion. Stickers are likely the next step, once the market saturates and is ready for a new trigger.
Telegram is doing what no other Web3 project does: it is undertaking mass onboarding from Web2 to Web3. Blockchains can be as fast and decentralized as they want, but are pointless without the people. And Telegram is bringing the people in. By the millions. Through emotion, gamification, and built-in UX.
And if Gifts are something to panic about, then maybe we’re looking at the most successful Web3 onboarding hack in history.
Facts for your collection by @TonPost
