Liquidity provider quits Toncoin (TON) pool

A relatively large liquidity provider abandoned a Toncoin (TON) pool, adding to the downward pressure on the token. TON now trades under $6 as uncertainty mounts around Pavel Durov’s address.

On-chain data showed a liquidity provider to Toncoin (TON) recently abandoned one of the token’s pools, withdrawing nearly $2M in value. The liquidity provider owned TON tokens, which can be used on DEXs and in the meme token trading ecosystem. After abandoning the liquidity pool, the whale sold 356,545 TON within the span of a few hours. 

The liquidation arrived just a day after TON crashed on the news of the arrest of Telegram’s co-founder, Pavel Durov. TON traded at $5.57, after erasing nearly 18% of its price on a weekly basis. Buyers also appeared, in support of Durov and as a way to campaign for his freedom. 

The Toncoin chain also bled value in the past month. The TON ecosystem was on track to lock in close to $1B in value. The slide in TON prices and some liquidity outflows diminished the TVL, down to $343.15M . 

Whale moves into more secure positions

The whale that rug-pulled a TON pool is listed as an ‘Elite Uniswap V3 LP’ by Nansen’s dashboard . 

The whale’s wallet now holds $1.2M in Tether (USDT) and over $1M in Ethereum (ETH). The wallet’s TON holdings have reached a significant turnover based on its inflows and outflows.

Some of the TON sold by the wallet ended up with other whales, including dedicated Toncoin millionaires.

The liquidity removed was equivalent to that of a top 20 Toncoin pairing, which usually holds between $1M and $2M in its pools. Dexscreener data shows some meme token pools are even smaller. Overall, all DEXs on Toncoin have around $73M in daily activity, significantly smaller compared to Solana and Ethereum. 

During the current market turbulence, there were some suggestions to treat TON as a meme asset and cause a short squeeze with concerted efforts. However, despite the multiple holders and Telegram users, TON remains subdued, with trading volumes of around $1B per day. Despite high daily active wallet counts, TON has not found its retail community capable of supporting the price or causing a relief rally.

Is the TON ecosystem in trouble? 

In Q3, the Toncoin ecosystem and TON gained attention, mostly due to idle games and airdrop projects like Hamster Kombat. 

TON even gained a limited Binance listing, as well as a staking program. However, the Toncoin ecosystem was viewed with skepticism. TON abandoned its usual stability at around $7, which meant increased risk and volatility for all meme tokens and DEX trades.   

The most recent event on the Toncoin ecosystem is the release of the Dogs token, now available to move on-chain and trade. 

Claims will be released gradually to eligible wallets, to avoid congestion. The Dogs project is also in the process of removing Sybill accounts with signs of point farming during the pre-launch period. 

Until recently, TON also looked like a token with some form of artificial support. In the past few weeks, TON formed a dangerous chart pattern , suggesting a potential drop to a much lower range. In the short term, TON is also turning into a risky trading asset, inviting higher open interest to benefit from short positions and the increased volatility. 

Since August 24, open interest expanded rapidly, rising from $220M to more than $320M. Bybit remains the most active market for TON, followed by Binance and OKX. Overall, short and long liquidations remained balanced in the last 24 hours, with a slight prevalence of long positions on Binance. 

The TON ecosystem also contains a significant list of whales, with the TON Believers Fund holding the largest part of the supply at 1.3B tokens . Additionally, only 50% of the TON supply is in circulation. 

From 2027 onward, TON will also deliberately increase its inflation, also adding a new inflow from ‘Idle Miners’. Currently, TON is still key for gas fees, as well as for the entire Telegram advertising economy. 

The biggest problem for the asset comes from the effect of Telegram, which is known to contain various channels and groups for illegal items, as well as risky crypto activities. At the same time, Telegram aims to democratize access to crypto while opening up payment channels with native USDT tokens.

Cryptopolitan reporting by Hristina Vasileva