Unlocking Economic Activity on TON and Telegram: Partnering with STON.fi

Einar Braathen

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Published in

The CoinFund Blog

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4 min read

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7 hours ago

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We’re excited to announce that CoinFund has led a previously undisclosed funding round in STON.fi, the leading DEX and liquidity layer on TON and Telegram. Having worked closely with Slavik, Martin and the rest of the team over the last year, they continuously keep impressing us with their vision and execution.

The Open Network (TON) is the blockchain used by Telegram to let developers build new products and unlock economic opportunities for its users. Telegram currently has 900M monthly active users, which represents one of the largest audiences in the world (link). These users are about to get seamlessly onboarded to crypto, as TOP, the company behind the Telegram-native crypto wallet, is in the process of rolling it out to every Telegram user outside of the US (link). We are already seeing evidence that adoption is well underway, with Monthly Active Wallets reaching 1.8M in April 2024, up from ~220k in the beginning of January (link). Early successes like Notcoin, which reached 35M accounts and 6M daily active users in three months, give a sense of what is to come, as they plan to mint the token on May 16th (link).

In order for the crypto economy to thrive, well-functioning liquidity is key. Exchanges have been one of the earliest and most successful categories in crypto, with good reason. To that end, STON.fi is the premier exchange and liquidity layer on TON, enabling the future economic activity for all Telegram users. If you’re swapping tokens on TON, chances are you are doing it on STON.fi. If you’re moving tokens in and out of TON, chances are you will use Omniston to do so. The protocol has enjoyed a warm reception, with TVL reaching ~$180M in May 2024 up from $4M in January (link). STON.fi is also the leader on TON in spot volume, with ~$676M in April, reflecting the increase in activity on TON.

Slavik Baranov, the STON.fi CEO, was an early adopter and believer in TON. His early vision and foresight was crucial to get STON.fi off the ground and to establish its leading position. Slavik has been at a number of startups and large companies, and has an early background as an engineer at Sun Microsystems. He has been joined by Martin Masser, CBDO, with a background from Lab49 and BNP Paribas, and who is already a pivotal figure in the community.

Slavik and the team are working tirelessly to support the entire ecosystem, setting the standard both for technical excellence and product experience. We’re honored to partner with them on the journey to unlock economic activity on TON and to Telegram users across the world.

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