Why Did TON Become the 'Dead Weight' of Public Blockchains in 2025? Telegram's 1 Billion Traffic Card Turned into Waste Paper
In 2025, the public blockchain sector of the cryptocurrency market experienced significant differentiation. BRC fluctuated with resilience in ecological narratives, ETH relied on Layer 2 dividends for support, and SOL was stabilized by institutional funding. However, TON, backed by the Telegram ecosystem, faced a downward trend, becoming the 'dead weight' of the public blockchain sector for the year. It plummeted from $2.8 at the beginning of the year to a low of $1.59 by year-end, a decline of over 80% from its historical high of $8.25, with a market value shrinking by more than 70%. The total value locked (TVL) in the ecosystem dropped sharply from $770 million to $170 million. This collapse was by no means accidental; it was a quadruple resonance of systemic pressure in the market, structural flaws in the token, a disconnection in ecological value, and negative regulatory repercussions. The so-called advantage of 1 billion user traffic completely failed in the face of fundamental deficiencies.