Weekly News Digest for June 23 - 29, 2025
▪️The blocking of Telegram in Vietnam in June 2025 led to a 45% drop in activity in the country's largest crypto communities in just a few days, demonstrating the critical dependence of the crypto market on this platform and the lack of full-fledged alternatives.
▪️The new CEO of the TON Foundation, Maximilian Crown, in an interview with The Daily TON spoke about plans for mass adoption of Toncoin, improving on- and off-ramps for users, and the upcoming launch of new hackathons.
▪️@MRKT implemented real-time notifications for new offers and orders.
▪️In the "Trade" section of Sticker Pack, a "Verified Markets" tab appeared with a list of trusted markets, including PalaceNFT, MRKT and IGLOO Market, as well as a promise of an upcoming official market launch.
▪️After the closure of Huione Guarantee, darknet markets on Telegram, such as Tudou Guarantee, significantly expanded, filling the vacated niche and attracting new users.
▪️The public launch of TON Teleport on the main blockchain is planned for early autumn, despite the technology being ready.
▪️The total sales volume of Telegram Gifts on $TON exceeded $100 million.
▪️RedotPay Mini App launched on Telegram, providing instant USDT payments and cryptocurrency conversion. ▪️In May 2025, the ton.org website confidently took third place in terms of traffic among cryptocurrency platforms with 742,110 visits.
▪️IGLOO completed a rebranding and is now named Harbor, strengthening its position in the TON ecosystem.
▪️Wallet Earn with Ethena launched, allowing passive earnings of up to 15% APR on USDT without management, simply by depositing up to 25,000 USDT. NFA & DYOR!
▪️The Open Hack, organized by TON Europe Hub, starts on July 3rd in Cannes at @EthCC — a two-week online hackathon for creating Web3 products on TON with a prize fund of $6000 and ecosystem support.
▪️Stakee entered the top 4 DeFi projects on TON by TVL thanks to liquid staking, integrated into MyTonWallet, and accessible via the @myapp mini-application, providing high returns and ecosystem development.
▪️At the first ever TON Demo Day, six promising projects their innovations to leading venture funds in the TON ecosystem. Summary
▪️A Chinese collector invited millionaires to the Pepe community and today bought 19 Plush Pepes, bringing his collection to 64 pieces worth over $1 million.
▪️42 Club: The number of gift holders almost reached a million, but market activity and liquidity are falling to spring levels, and new drops and improvements from Telegram are rumored to be delayed for a major update, while individual holders are trying to maintain prices, and gift crafting remains an unused reserve.
▪️A contest from Crown Max was held in the TON community: to win one of three unique BAYC #1, 2 or 3 stickers, one had to publish their post with insights about stickers on TON by June 29.
▪️Chinese user @fuhao acquired 19 Heart Lockets for $100,000 and stated that he is waiting for a pump.
▪️Restrictions on Telegram's operation were introduced in Kenya, coinciding with a ban on live streaming of protests on June 25, amid fears of a possible complete internet shutdown.
▪️FIVA launched a simplified financial application on Telegram with up to 15% yield on USDT and 10% on TON, a simple banking interface, and a prize draw for users who invest from $10.
▪️Public orders appeared on the MRKT marketplace, and now gifts and stickers can be instantly sold and bought at a suitable price.
▪️OKX announced the upcoming delisting of the TONUSD perpetual future, while the main TONUSDT contract based on the USDT stablecoin will continue to trade without changes.
▪️Protocol Camp announced a new edition of its program to support Web3 innovators across Asia, which could contribute to the development of the TON ecosystem in the region.
▪️The Open Platform launches the Telegram Mini Game Accelerator Camp in the APAC region, which will select up to 10 teams to support and fund the best mini-games on TON to accelerate the growth of the Telegram Mini Apps ecosystem.
▪️NFT Plush Pepe appeared on the famous NFT wall in New York.
▪️MEXC's campaign with a $1 million prize fund in partnership with TON attracted 110,000 participants and set an exchange record with a trading volume of $6.6 billion.
▪️The swap.coffee team launched a Telegram gift aggregator "Thermos" — a service with zero commission and cashback that searches for the best gift prices across several TON marketplaces.
▪️Telegram officially became a member of Astana Hub, the largest IT startup technopark in Central Asia, for the development of digital products in domestic and global markets.
▪️Telegram Gifts and TON made their debut on Times Square’s main screen during NFT.NYC, where TON was showcased as infrastructure for next-generation digital collectibles and a candidate for a global Web3 standard.
▪️Over the past week, the total outflow of TON from centralized exchanges reached 4.97 million TON, liquidity in TON/USDT pools on DEX decreased by 0.39 million USDT (-4.5%), and on-chain user activity has been declining for the second consecutive week, with TON’s market price at $2.83 (-3.7%).
▪️The Russian State Duma stated that stricter sanctions may be imposed on Telegram following the launch of a national Russian messenger due to Telegram’s non-compliance with data localization and removal of prohibited content requirements.
▪️The beta version of Telegram for Android 11.13.0 introduced a "My TON" tab displaying the TON balance directly in the app.
▪️Stars withdrawal to TON will be available not only for bots but also for regular users.
▪️Telegram is testing local message translation directly on the device for faster performance and enhanced privacy, and is preparing to launch video ads in the video player as part of its monetization expansion.
▪️The number of gift holders has surpassed 1,000,000, according to giftstat.com.
▪️The average cost of mining 1 BTC in Q2 2025 exceeded $70,000.
▪️In 2013, one of the early investors acquired 300BTC for only $60,000 — 12 years later he sold his entire stock for $30,000,000.
▪️Metaplanet bought an additional 1111 BTC, now the company holds 11,111 BTC. ▪️ZachXBT exposed a New York scammer who stole over $4,000,000 from Coinbase users.
▪️Last week, Strategy bought only 245 BTC at a rate of $105,856.
▪️The futures market saw a sharp reduction in leveraged positions — the largest since 2021, when China banned mining.
▪️Today, hackers hacked the advertising network of Cointelegraph and replaced elements of the site to show fake windows with a "CTG token airdrop."
▪️Cryptocurrency exchange OKX is considering an IPO in the USA.
▪️Cardone Capital bought 1000 BTC for its balance, becoming the first real estate company in history to implement a Bitcoin investment strategy.
▪️The net inflow of funds into spot Bitcoin ETFs last week exceeded $1,000,000,000.
▪️Self Chain project CEO Ravindra Kumar was fired after allegations of fraud amounting to over $50,000,000.
▪️French company Sequans will invest $384,000,000 in creating a Bitcoin treasury.
▪️Texas became the first state in the USA to create a state-funded Bitcoin reserve — the state authorities have already allocated $10,000,000 for the purchase of crypto.
▪️The Fear and Greed Index once again rose to "Greed" level, reaching a value of 65.
▪️Moscow Exchange will launch futures on the BTC index.
▪️Japanese Metaplanet allocates $5 billion for its US branch to buy BTC — the company plans to accumulate 210,000 BTC on its balance sheet by the end of 2027.
▪️Turkey tightens regulation of cryptocurrencies.
▪️In the USA, cryptocurrency may start to be taken into account when applying for a mortgage — this was reported by the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).
▪️TRON blockchain stopped for more than 15 minutes on June 24.
▪️Ledger introduced Recovery Key — a physical "backup key" for restoring crypto wallets.
▪️In Japan, a crypto reform is planned — the regulator wants to equate crypto with financial products, which could lead to a reduction in the tax on cryptocurrency income from 55% to 20%, and the legalization of crypto ETFs.
▪️Circle's capitalization grew to $63.9 billion, exceeding the market supply of its main product — the USDC stablecoin.
▪️Bitmama (Valeria Fedyakina) received 7 years in a penal colony.
▪️In Kuzbass, the idea of placing mining farms near coal enterprises is being considered — electricity is planned to be obtained by burning coal.
▪️Ethereum may start creating new blocks twice as fast — in 6 seconds instead of 12.
▪️Norwegian company Green Minerals, engaged in deep-sea mining, will attract $1.2 billion to buy BTC for its balance.
▪️The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) stated that stablecoins are not suitable as money.
▪️Financial Times writes that a new stablecoin pegged to the ruble has appeared in Russia — it is used for shadow cross-border transfers, despite Western sanctions.
▪️CoinShares analysts state that Bitcoin has become less volatile than gold.
▪️Eight largest banks in South Korea are creating their "own USDT" — a stablecoin pegged to the won, to compete with dollar tokens and maintain financial sovereignty.
▪️Tether, the issuer of USDT, became the second largest shareholder of the Italian football club "Juventus."
▪️One of the largest banks in the UK, Barclays, will prohibit its customers from using bank cards for any cryptocurrency operations from June 27.
▪️Metaplanet bought an additional 1234 BTC — now the company holds 12,345 BTC.
▪️A Russian court recognized trading cryptocurrency through personal bank cards as entrepreneurial activity.
▪️Tether CEO believes that in the next 15 years, up to 1 trillion AI agents will use Bitcoin and USDT to conduct transactions among themselves.
▪️In India, the first discussions on creating a strategic Bitcoin reserve have begun.
▪️"Satoshi era" miners have almost stopped selling their coins.