Key Takeaways
- Telegram has nearly 1 billion users, though roughly 10% of its users have activated its native crypto wallet.
- Play-to-earn was the biggest draw for new crypto users, but play-to-win could soon replace this trend.
- Telegram Gift NFTs comprise a market cap of $134 million.
Telegram, with its billion users, is quickly transforming from a messaging app into a full-blown Web3 ecosystem.
Thanks to The Open Network (TON), users in 2025 now have access to crypto wallets, blockchain-based apps, and play-to-earn games — all without leaving the app.
To get a closer look at TON’s rapid expansion, CCN caught up with Head of Growth Martin Masser to discuss the project’s momentum, roadblocks, and what’s coming next.
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TON Foundation
Martin Masser’s entry into crypto is as typical as any other. He explains, “I’m a big Sheffield Wednesday fan,” an English football club, “and I heard this ‘celebrity’ Max Keiser supported us.”
He was hoping to hear Keiser discuss the club on his TV show in 2012. Instead, Keiser spoke, likely at great length , about Bitcoin. “I’ve been hooked ever since,” he explains.
Now, to find himself in an influential, important position at Telegram’s powerhouse Web3 network, he admits to a state of disbelief.
“I’m loving every second of it. I’m that person in a group of friends that’s known as the “crypto guy”. I want to say sorry to all of my friends, by the way… but I’m the type of person that brings every conversation back to crypto.”
Masser was appointed as TON’s Head of Growth in May 2025 after working with the biggest decentralized exchange (DEX) on TON, STON.fi. So, “transitioning to TON felt like the next natural step.”
“TON and Telegram are one of the most unique combinations in crypto. Almost everyone in the space uses Telegram; it’s probably one of the top three apps for anyone working in the industry. And yet, millions of Telegram users still haven’t touched crypto or discovered TON,” Masser notes.
Masser says that TON is Telegram’s blockchain of choice, and now he gets to go on stage and talk about “what crypto can be.”
As Head of Growth, he sees himself as a “concierge” who connects people, guides projects, and gives the ecosystem whatever it needs to thrive.
Web3 Gaming
One of the biggest drivers behind Telegram’s growing Web3 footprint is its rapidly expanding ecosystem of mini apps and casual mobile games—many of which have served as a gateway to the TON wallet and crypto adoption.
Play-to-earn titles like Notcoin, Hamster Kombat, and Catizen have led the charge. These viral hits—though controversial—have undeniably succeeded in onboarding millions of users at lightning speed.
However, while the growth has been explosive, the model itself is starting to show signs of fatigue. It’s time to move forward, says Masser.
Play-to-earn proved that TON can scale fast, but simply cloning old formats—like Bombie’s follow-up, Capybobo—won’t lead to long-term success. Masser asserts that the next phase needs more than token rewards.
“The biggest issue? Game makers feel they need to pay users to play,” Masser explained. “The best games won’t need that. They’ll monetize through microtransactions: extra turns, levels, skins, and in-game NFTs.”
Enter Play-to-Win, a model in which players stake assets, such as crypto or digital collectibles, and winners take the prize.
It flips the script by rewarding skill and competition rather than passive farming. “It rewards real players, not just opportunists,” Masser adds.
What’s giving these games real momentum, though, is Telegram’s built-in social layer. Group chats, referral challenges, and shared leaderboards turn every game into a viral loop.
“What’s driving success here is Telegram’s built-in social layer: sharing challenges, referrals, and group-based play spreads adoption at lightning speed,” Masser adds.
TON 2025
Telegram is nearing 1 billion users, and its partnership with TON has turned the messaging app into one of the largest gateways into Web3, blockchain, and crypto. However, there’s room for improvement.
“We need to streamline developer onboarding and provide full support for emerging projects. Also, while Tap-to-Earn games have brought in millions of users, TON’s ecosystem also includes a growing number of serious, utility-driven projects,” Masser notes.
DeFi
TON is also home to dozens of decentralized finance (DeFi) apps and decentralized exchanges (DEXs), though they’ve not quite taken off in the way that other blockchain ecosystems have, despite the potential user base being in the hundreds of millions.
Per Tonstat data, the network has 44.85 million on-chain activated wallets and records approximately 107,000 daily active wallets.
Masser explains that platforms like STON.fi and Dedust recently experienced some amazing growth in TVL, volumes, and users when Tether (USDT) launched on TON.
“It’s cooled off since, but it’s demonstrated that there’s plenty of potential when there’s a clear use for TON DeFi.”
DEX activity has slowed considerably, and in order to drive it upwards again, Masser believes TON needs more on-chain use cases that “naturally encourage trading.”
“I think the real unlock is blending DeFi into everyday mini apps—like a game offering a monthly pass unlocked by staking TON. Users get in-game perks and earn yield, with staking routed through platforms like Tonstakers,” Masser notes.
According to Masser, DeFi on TON has a “unique” edge thanks to the Telegram Mini Apps, TON token’s distribution, its inherent social layers, as well as gaming integrations.
Collectibles Market
According to Masser, one of TON’s fastest-growing trends is Telegram Gifts, which are NFT collectibles that users can wear on their profile.
“They’re tradable both off-chain, within Telegram, and on-chain via secondary markets.”
He adds,
“They align perfectly with TON’s mission to bring the masses into Web3. Over 282,000 unique wallets have traded Gifts, with ~60% created after the launch, which means around 170,000 new users have been onboarded through this alone.”
They’re meant to be shared, and Telegram will drop them to users around calendar events like Valentine’s Day or Independence Day, which Masser believes encourages users to share with friends and family who may “engage, upgrade, and start trading.”
According to Dune data, roughly 290,000 unique wallets have traded at least one of the 118 available Gifts, which now comprise a sturdy market cap of $143 million.
But, much like many NFT collections, Telegram Gifts may have little long-term value, and hype around them can fade once they lose their worth, ultimately becoming digital dust.
According to Masser, their seamless integration with Telegram gives them an incomparable level of utility, especially as Telegram continues to add features that boost their value and utility in the app.
“These collections have already built strong communities, some with whale investors, thanks to high floor prices. This creates a prime opportunity for TON TMA projects to offer exclusive utilities to specific Gift holders—making Gifts powerful tools for targeted distribution,” Masser revealed.
Furthermore, the recent collaboration with legendary hip-hop artist Snoop Dogg “made waves” and brought fresh attention to Gifts.
“If Telegram keeps dropping exclusive collections like this, they’ll onboard a whole new wave of users into both Gifts and Telegram itself,” Masser notes.
The Future
With all this momentum behind him, Masser’s efforts as Head of Growth at TON are set to be bolstered by some major changes coming to the network, which begins a gigantic update, the Accelerator Mainnet Upgrade.
This “is a big one,” Masser notes, which will boost everything from speed to finality, and push “TON’s TPS past 100,000,” which is set to unlock a “whole new level of performance and scalability.”
With some work, TON hopes to push deeper into the U.S. market with potential new exchange listings, which will attract a fresh wave of developers and projects.
“I’m wary of predictions. Next year, even if it’s just six months away, feels like a lifetime in crypto. I’d love to see more on-chain payments and consumer apps gain traction. IP from traditional brands could also boom. I don’t believe just selling NFTs will cut it — I think there needs to be real utility behind them,” says Masser.
To Masser, using TON and Telegram feels like the “early days of the iPhone”; it’s a game-changing era that’s only just begun.
“It will take time for projects to unlock the full potential of this partnership. Just like ride-sharing apps seemed impossible before, now they’re everywhere. We’re only scratching the surface of what’s possible here.”
But despite these challenges, and more, “the goal is simple: make people’s lives easier, more fun, and enjoyable. That’s how we create real impact.”
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