The state of the TON ecosystem today: 3 insights from a podcast with the co-founder of EVAA, the first lending protocol on TON

🛫 Telegram mini apps act as a gateway for users: The Telegram ecosystem plays a crucial role in introducing users to the TON and DeFi protocols. Approximately 50% of EVA's users engage through Telegram mini-applications. This trend shows that DeFi protocols are moving towards more user-friendly experiences, embedded in apps that people use every day.

💰 TON is growing beyond tap-to-earn: TON is often associated with tap-to-earn apps, but it has grown significantly in DeFi. For example, the EVAA protocol has reached a TVL of $24 million with around 7-8 thousand monthly active wallets.

📚 TON users need to be educated: DeFi protocols involve complex strategies that many users, even experienced whale users, often find difficult to understand. To address this, EVA is actively creating educational content. The team is producing short tutorial videos (similar to Instagram Reels) and articles that break down specific strategies and processes for using their platform.

These materials aim to help users understand how to interact with lending protocols, supply assets and mitigate risk.