
Bitcoin dominance is rising, impacting altcoins like Toncoin (TON), which has been declining against Bitcoin for six months.
TON's price outlook is bearish due to slow ecosystem growth, decreased whale investor activity, and stagnant DeFi development.
TON developers are pushing for growth with a 2025 roadmap focused on DeFi scalability, a Bitcoin bridge, and the "Accelerator kernel" update.
The altcoin industry has continued to bleed into the Bitcoin market again, as shown by the rising BTC dominance to nearly 60 percent. Toncoin (TON), the native coin for the Telegram-backed top-tier layer one (L1), has been bleeding profusely to Bitcoin for the past six months.
The large-cap altcoin, with a fully diluted valuation of about $25 billion and a 24-hour average trading volume of around $164 million, has been trapped in a correction mode against the U.S. dollar since early 2024.
As a result, the short-term outlook for the TON price remains bearish unless a sudden rebound happens.
Investor Sentiment Dips as Whales Stop Buying
The Toncoin ecosystem has seen slower growth, especially in terms of cash inflows from whale investors. Market data from Santiment shows that investors holding between 10 and 10,000 TON coins have sold more than 890,000 TON tokens since mid-2024, following the arrest of Telegram’s founder, Pavel Durov
Pavel Durov
Pavel Durov is a Russian-born entrepreneur and investor. He is recognized for establishing Telegram, a widely used messaging app that prioritizes privacy and decentralization. Durov backs cryptocurrency adoption and has invested heavily in cryptocurrencies.
Durov launched a cryptocurrency coin known as ‘Toncoin’ (now managed by multiple stakeholders) and also supports the idea of decentralized finance. Following his work in the investing sector, he was named in the ‘40 under 40’ by Fortune.
Quick Facts
Full name Pavel Valeryevich Durov Birth 10-10-1984, Saint Petersburg, Russia Nationality Kittitian, Emirati, Russian, Soviet, French Education BA from Saint Petersburg State University Known for Entrepreneur
Pavel Durov - Career Highlights and Events 2006 – Co-established VK, the largest social networking platform in Russia. 2013 – Founded Telegram, a messaging platform, stressing privacy and encryption. 2020 – TON was contained because of U.S. SEC regulations. 2021 – TON was redefined as a blockchain project with open-source capabilities. 2022 – Telegram incorporated cryptocurrency payments using Toncoin. EntrepreneurDeveloper/ProgrammerChief Executive Officer , in France. This event added more pressure on Toncoin’s price.
Despite support from the Toncoin Foundation, the DeFi sector on the TON network has struggled to gain significant traction. Inal Kardan, a partner at TON Ventures, pointed out that the ecosystem has not gained the expected momentum.
However, Kardan is hopeful, stating that memecoins on the TON network could see a surge in demand in the near future, providing a potential boost to the ecosystem.
The Silver Lining for TON Ecosystem
Backed by Telegram, which has nearly 1 billion monthly active users, the TON ecosystem has gradually grown into a vibrant DeFi ecosystem. As of this writing, the TON ecosystem had a total value locked of about $272 million and a stablecoins market cap of around $1.4 billion, according to Defillama.
In a bid to stir up the DeFi growth prospect, the TON core developers recently released a detailed roadmap for the first half of 2025. The Accelerator kernel update on the mainnet is a huge deal for the TON network in the coming months. In addition to the support of a secure bridge to the Bitcoin ecosystem, the TON core developers are keen to enable a scalable DeFi ecosystem.
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