The Open Network Unveils $124M Incentives Program Amid Soaring Growth

The TON Foundation, the organization building The Open Network (TON), the blockchain previously known as Telegram Open Network, is launching a program distributing nine figures worth of incentives to developers and users.

Announced on March 20, the foundation will distribute 30 million of its native Toncoin tokens to active users through its newly announced Open League campaign. With Toncoin currently trading for $4.13, the rewards on offer are worth roughly $124 million.

The Open League will take place over four month-long seasons starting April 1. The first season will offer roughly $15 million worth of tokens to developers that meet key performance indicators and top a competitive leaderboard. Approximately $22 million will also be up for grabs for dApp users in the form of quests, airdrops, and incentives for liquidity providers.

“The Open League and its massive rewards are designed to create a positive ‘flywheel’ for TON projects,” the foundation said. “The hypothesis is simple – once the world sees how every project in The Open League can make millions of Telegram users go on-chain; TON becomes the obvious choice for every mass audience consumer product on the planet.”

The foundation already completed a two-week Open League pilot that distributed 650,000 Toncoin (nearly $2.7 million). The foundation attributes the pilot to a 70% increase in the total value locked (TVL) on TON and a 370% increase in daily active wallets since the pilot kicked off.

TON adoption surges

The Open Network’s TVL has soared 133% over the past four weeks, jumping to $218.7 million from $93.7 million.

However, Toncoin liquid staking protocols dominate the network’s TVL rankings, with Tonstakers boasting a 53% dominance with $116.4 million, followed by Bemo with $30.3 million.

TON-native decentralized exchanges Ston.fi and DeDust come in third and fourth with $29.9 million and $25.27, while Stakee, another liquid staking protocol, ranks fifth with $11.2 million. TON's top five DeFi protocols account for 97.4% of the network's TVL combined.

The price of Toncoin is also up 53% in the past two weeks and nearly 100% since Feb. 26, falling just 10% shy of its November 2021 all-time high of $4.50, according to CoinGecko.

On Feb. 28, Telegram, the popular encrypted messaging app, also announced it would begin sharing 50% of advertising revenue with channel owners via Toncoin in March.

Telegram originally began developing TON in 2018, but the company later abandoned the project following a protracted battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2020. While the TON Foundation took over development, TON became the official web3 infrastructure platform for Telegram in September 2023 following an agreement between the two entities.