With the recent arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov in France, this incident quickly drew global attention from the cryptocurrency and tech communities. A public outcry erupted, with top tech leaders, Silicon Valley companies, and crypto experts showing their support for Telegram and Durov. In this age of the attention economy, both Telegram and the TON blockchain became the center of focus, instantly attracting the entire crypto industry. This undoubtedly added significant intangible value to the TON ecosystem.
The recent bull market has revealed that Ethereum’s market dominance is too decentralized, Solana’s recovery from the FTX incident remains incomplete, and Base has yet to attract major players. Against this backdrop, the market is in desperate need of a vibrant and active blockchain ecosystem, and TON in 2024 is emerging as the shining star that fulfills this demand.
According to DefiLlama, the total value locked (TVL) on the TON blockchain experienced explosive growth in the first seven months of 2024, skyrocketing from under $10 million to $718 million—a nearly 70-fold increase. While this scale still pales in comparison to top-tier blockchains like Ethereum, for a blockchain in its early stages, this data undeniably highlights TON’s rapid ecosystem expansion and growing maturity.
During this period, Telegram’s mini-game market has also flourished, becoming a major highlight of the TON ecosystem. Industry insiders have revealed that over 100 mini-games are already running on Telegram, with many more in development, further enriching the diversity of the TON ecosystem.
At the same time, top-tier exchanges have begun to recognize the strength of the TON ecosystem. From NotCoin and TON to the recent launch of DOGS, three TON-based tokens have been listed consecutively, showcasing the market’s high confidence in TON’s potential and current momentum. DOGS recently launched on Binance, with top exchanges competing to attract traffic. Following Durov’s arrest, the meme culture within the TON ecosystem expanded rapidly, with the “REDO the Resistance Dog” meme gaining widespread support.
The rapid rise of the TON ecosystem has captured the attention of users and capital alike, with Vertex Capital being one of the key players driving this momentum.
Vertex Capital’s core team has successfully invested in several forward-looking projects, including the decentralized data grid project Stratos, Ethereum sidechain Gnosis Chain (formerly xDai), zkSync Swap project Izumi, multi-chain bridge BoringDAO, composable Divergence, MPC wallet Qredo, and AI data network EpiK. These investments not only showcase Vertex Capital’s sharp insight in project selection but also reflect its deep industry expertise and extensive resource integration capabilities.
Ander Tsui, the founder of Vertex Capital, has been deeply involved in the crypto industry for over a decade, making him a seasoned investor and entrepreneur. With extensive investment experience and broad industry resources, Tsui plays a vital role in the development of Vertex Capital and also serves as the Co-Chairman of the Hong Kong Blockchain Association. Additionally, he founded the globally renowned EDGE Summit, making significant contributions to the promotion of blockchain technology and the Web3 ecosystem.
Recently, Vertex Capital launched an innovative game campaign called Token Hunter, featuring projects from its investment ecosystem. The game successfully completed its internal testing phase and officially launched on October 23. It aims to connect with multiple Vertex Capital-backed projects through fun, engaging gameplay. This initiative is expected to attract a large number of Telegram users and will offer community members generous rewards, with the airdrop rewards expected to reach $2 million.
Vertex Capital is confident in the potential of the Telegram mini-game market. Although the current games are primarily focused on simple “yield farming” mechanics, from a technical perspective, they are quite similar to WeChat mini-games and fully capable of supporting more elaborate game types. A Vertex Capital representative noted that simpler games like treasure hunts and card-based games could experience explosive growth on this platform in the future.
As mentioned earlier, Token Hunter is designed to allow players to earn coins through gameplay, which can then be exchanged for points in other projects at a certain rate.
This model creates a “multi-benefit” effect—players can participate in multiple Vertex Capital-backed projects’ reward programs while enjoying Token Hunter. These eight projects include Hape, MEET48, LightCycle, Skytopia, H3 Entertainment, TraditioNow, FansLand, and Soully, each showcasing unique potential and charm in their respective fields.
Through Token Hunter, players not only get to enjoy the fun of gaming but also engage with these high-potential projects, reaping diversified rewards. This “multi-benefit” design highlights Vertex Capital’s deep understanding of the TON ecosystem and its innovative spirit, providing users with unprecedented value.
Although many in the industry have expressed doubts about whether VCs can find the right entry point into the TON ecosystem, Vertex Capital has made an innovative breakthrough. Their approach is clear: the games don’t need to be overly complex but should be simple, fun, and accessible to Web2 users, while ensuring the development process is easy to iterate. In this context, Telegram mini-games are undoubtedly the most suitable channel.
“Moreover, Telegram has a lower compliance cost compared to other platforms, and the potential of its gaming market could even surpass that of WeChat mini-games. This means the monthly active users of this market could reach hundreds of millions in the future, with annual revenues potentially hitting billions of dollars,” a Vertex Capital representative stated. They believe that with Telegram’s massive user base, numerous new projects will gain access to a significant pool of potential users.
