Ton’s Path to 500 million users and expansion plans in the United States – interview with Steve Yun

Steve Yun, who represents TON Foundation as a member of the Board of Directors, met with Beincrypto during the Web3 Web3 2025 festival. In this exclusive interview, he discussed the recent TON developments and its unique location in the Blockchain scene as the infrastructure that focuses on the small application designed for the ecosystem of the german.

The conversation covered the investment in the secondary market with a value of $ 400 million, technical promotions to its simultaneous structure, and strategic initiatives in the Defi and Maming sectors. Yun also shared his views on expanding the American markets and benefiting from the knowledge of the Asia and Pacific region of ecosystems with superior application.

TVL ON TON decreased by 72 %. Why, and what is your response?

The decrease in the closed total value stems mainly from our strategic decision to stop the incentives of liquidity. Our analysis confirms that incentives are effective – with their influence that is important in the bear markets and greatly greater through the bull markets – but the main challenge is to ensure that liquidity remains sustainable after the incentives end.

What we have discovered is that the comprehensive ecological system is necessary for sustainable liquidity. Our primary infrastructure consists primarily from the main automated market makers, which were not enough. We are now building a full range of fine books: lending protocols, derivatives, permanent future contracts, Dexs concentrated liquidity with limit orders, stable swap mechanisms such as the curve, and dynamic liquidity solutions similar to the MAVERICK.

These capital saving tools create an environmental system as liquidity naturally want to survive. We are busy developing this comprehensive infrastructure, and as soon as they are in place, we will consider re -introducing incentives. The main insight was that incentives alone create a temporary activity, but the strong ecosystem creates permanent value and sustainable growth.

How to be used recently 400 million dollars investment With Telegram for Web3 initiatives?

The investment of $ 400 million has occurred over several years in the secondary market, not directly to the institution. The Foundation does not receive these funds directly – beneficiaries of TONCOIN holders and miners who determine the allocation of these returns independently. We only work on donations from mines as our reserves. Although we hope these boxes will benefit from the ecosystem, it is eventually up to the owners of individuals. It is important to make it clear that when we announced this investment, we were integrating and sales of the secondary market that we were aware of, and we did not announce the direct investment in the institution itself.

What are the main features that the 2025 Layer-2 network will work on “Upgrade” Mainnet Promotion Peace?

We have made significant improvements on the simultaneous TON structure, which is essentially different from the synchronous Blockchains like Ethereum. In TON, transactions do not need to wait for previous transactions to be confirmed – all of which can be confirmed simultaneously, making them faster and more developed. In the past, crowding in one of the electrolytes can affect the entire network, but our update ensures that the problems remain isolated from specific fragments, which improves the durability of the network.

We also develop a new programming language for Func, which provides great complexity for developers because of its low -level nature. In addition, we are working on Workchains – similar to Polkadot, but they are more tight with the main chain. These specialized chains will enable the use cases that the current infrastructure cannot support efficiently, such as high -frequency trading that requires high liquid decentralized exchanges. These combined improvements make developers more suitable and able to support various applications.

How will Ton BTC Mechanism It affects your ecosystem?

TGBTC is an important addition to our side ecosystem, which greatly enhances liquidity in the Defi environment in TON. What makes it unique is our implementation approach. Most Bitcoin solutions are used on other chains of symbolic standards such as ERC-20, which include compliance features, allowing the source to freeze or confiscate assets. This centralization is a problem for bitcoin holders who appreciate decentralization.

TON deals with this challenge through our “additional currency” technology, which works like Toncoin itself – which is only controlled by the auditor, not by any one entity. This means that TGBTC cannot be frozen or confiscated by the distinguished creator, which makes it uniquely attractive to bitcoin holders who want to generate the return through Defi’s activities but they were hesitant to use other wrapped solutions due to nursery concerns. They can now use Bitcoin in Defi without prejudice to the basic value to resist control that attracted them to Bitcoin at first.

What are the advantages of TON in Defi and Gamefi?

I speak personally, keep the measured expectations regarding the future pathway of encryption games. When we saw the launch of high -quality games on Telegram, the primary interest of users tends to focus on symbolic timelines instead of giving play. People want speculation, not games – Crypto games are often an alternative way to speculative activity. Even successful examples such as Axie Infinity have seen Price Outpace, and few of them are still playing these games.

The Foundation continues to support games initiatives due to the social aspects of Telegram, but I believe that the encryption games model as it was initially imagined had reached its end. The strategy of one liquefaction can be found between many, but it is not necessary.

Defi, however, can not exist without encryption. We focus on payments and Defi solutions, including the distinctive symbol of Telegram bonds, which generate 8-15 % annual revenue and may provide access to discounts to subscriptions in potential telegram-strong assets of the ecological system.

What are the expansion plans in the United States under the president? Manuel Stoutzcommand?

Due to the previous SEC issues with Gram, we maintained a policy of not participating with American entities. When they arrived abroad, we simply rejected the chances of participation. However, the organizational scene developed, prompting the re -calibration of our strategy.

We are now actively involved with American companies and exchanged about the inclusion of Toncoin -based assets and tons, including stablecoins. We encourage stablecoin exporters to mint already on a ton. Society has already started holding events in the United States, and the Foundation plans to create material representation there.

An important development is to make the uncomfortable part of the area of ​​the space available to American people, which was previously restricted. This strategic shift recognizes the importance of the American market while maintaining compliance with regulatory requirements.

What is your message at the Hong Kong Web 3 and Asia Pacific strategy?

Our strategic situation distinguishes us from traditional Blockchain projects-we are targeting small application developers instead of smart contract developers. While other chains attend Ethereum conferences to compete for smart contract developers, we focus on areas with highly applied ecosystems. APAC is especially important because people here understand and use super applications such as WeChat, Line and Kakaotalk.

We reach this market through Hong Kong, and we build relationships with major players like Hashkey, who called by providing the main access to the TON ECOSYSTEM day for two years. This partnership is strategic because APAC users have an advanced familiarity with integrated digital ecosystems, which makes them adopt early perfect for the ecosystems of TON inside Telegram. Knowing the region with integrated digital experiences makes it a fertile ground for our approach to adopting Web3.