The Alchemy of Traffic: Black-Box Data and Cyber Incense Money
In March 2025, the final message of an abandoned Telegram group froze on “Withdrawal Failed.” Once a “metaverse gold rush” hub for 30,000 players, it now only spams gambling ads. Meanwhile, on JuCoin’s Chain Analytics, TON’s TVL curve stages a farcical performance: despite zero daily active addresses, a DeFi protocol still shows $120 million “locked”—phantom liquidity serving as TON’s final artistic statement.
Rewind to summer 2024, when Telegram mini-games were crypto’s holy grail. Notcoin’s “click-to-mine” gimmick attracted 30 million “players,” Catizen’s revenue hit $16 million, and Binance listed 5 TON tokens in 84 days. This magic stemmed from a “dark alchemy formula” exposed by JuCoin Research:
$0.002 (India bot cost) × 300k fake addresses = $600 → $30M user base in exchange valuation models“We didn’t need real players—studios and traffic-swap alliances fabricated perfect data,” confessed Xiao Guang, a former TON ecosystem operator. When a game needed an exchange listing, 20 studios could “create” 500k active addresses in 48 hours. These numbers circulated in Telegram’s closed ecosystem like Trisolaran droplets—sleek on the surface, lethal at their core.
The ultimate irony belonged to “airdrop hunters.” Using scripts to control 200 Telegram accounts, they funneled NOT tokens through 100 on-chain transfers before dumping via OTC to market makers. “More efficient than Myanmar scams,” bragged a hunter on Discord, “each account earns $0.99 daily—exactly enough for digital incense money.”
Ruins of Power: Russian Roulette and Ecosystem Cannibalism
As TON peaked at $8, the foundation’s Dubai office hosted crypto’s bloodiest power struggle. The Taiwanese team’s “SocialFi” proposal was vetoed by the Russian faction, which diverted tens of millions into DeFi protocols. JuCoin’s chain forensics revealed the truth: 85% of grants flowed to TOP-linked Russian projects, while Chinese developers had a 3% approval rate.
“Catizen’s success wasn’t accidental—it was a Moscow-led money laundering scheme,” leaked a former foundation member. The “cat-raising game” by Pluto Studio washed $230 million through 40-layer mixers into Dubai real estate, leaving only harmless “kitty NFTs” on-chain.
The fatal blow came in August 2024 when Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested in France for allegedly moving war funds via TON stablecoins. Court documents showed a Russian oligarch laundered $230 million through Hamster Kombat, while TON ignored FBI warnings. “They chose silence,” the prosecutor revealed, “because the ecosystem’s ‘boom’ needed endless dark capital.”The collapse was brutal. As Binance delisted NOT, a Zhejiang studio owner fled Dubai with 20 MacBooks—each storing 100k zombie accounts. “We faked 3 million daily actives for Catizen,” he sighed, “and couldn’t even recoup electricity bills.”
Now, three ghosts haunt TON’s ruins:
- Idealists: Teams like Little Ghost NFT survive on Web2 outsourcing
- Speculators: Operators like Xiao Guang pivot to memecoins, recycling old tricks
- Power Brokers: TOP repackages TON wallet code into “new chain” Kaia
In Telegram’s crypto groups, “TON 2.0” whitepapers still circulate. The dream of 900 million users now echoes as a dark joke: “Telegram + Web3 = 404 Not Found.”
Colin Winston
