The Toncoin (TON) ecosystem, with potential access to more than one billion users through Telegram, experienced a relatively gloomy year in 2025. TON’s price dropped 65% from its early-year peak.
However, several positive signals appeared in late December. These signals could form the basis for expectations of a TON recovery in Q1/2026.
Trading Volume and Network Activity Show Improvement
First, TON’s daily trading volume increased sharply.
According to data from Tonscan, as of the third week of December 2025, TON’s daily trading volume had exceeded $154 million. This figure represented an increase of more than 41.7%.
This marked the highest trading volume level for December. The surge indicated a return of active trading after a slowdown caused by negative sentiment across the altcoin market.
TON price and trading volume. Source: Tonscan
TON has held above the $1.4 level in recent days. Rising volume, combined with a slowing pace of price decline, signals renewed buying pressure.
Another notable sign is TON’s return to “trending” status on CoinGecko. This trend reflects renewed search interest and trading demand for TON in December. It also helps explain the recent increase in trading volume.
Top Trending Crypto Source: CoinGecko
On-chain data adds further optimism.
Although TON’s daily active users (DAU) fell sharply compared with 2024, the decline now appears to be stabilizing. User activity previously reached record levels due to airdrop and GameFi campaigns.
TON price and Daily Active Users. Source: Artemis
Data show that over the past three months, the number of daily active users increased from 70,000 to nearly 100,000. During the same period, TON’s price fell from $3 to $1.4. This divergence suggests returning confidence. It may also indicate that investors view TON as undervalued.
What Awaits TON in 2026?
At the Blockchain Life 2025 event in October, Pavel Durov – Telegram’s founder – emphasized Telegram’s intention to take a more active role in developing TON’s core technology in 2026.
In December, Durov announced the official launch of Cocoon, a decentralized and secure computing network.GPU owners have begun earning TON by contributing computing power to the network.
Investors believe Pavel Durov and Telegram will continue to expand their efforts to bring TON to a potential one billion users each month.
“In 2026, Telegram is gonna ramp up work on developing TON, as Pavel Durov said, adding that we should expect some major announcements. Hoping 2026 will be a bullish year for the TON ecosystem.” – Investor Mr. Satoshik predicted.
Another major milestone recently emerged. Kraken announced support for the xStocks platform.
This integration allows Telegram users to buy, hold, and transfer tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs directly within the TON Wallet.
“After pioneering tokenized equities on Solana and expanding to EVM through Ethereum, we set foot on TON. With this strategic step, we take the same winning solution chosen by 50,000 users, moving over $13B in combined CEX + DEX volume, to the blockchain native to Telegram.” xStocks stated.
These developments represent positive signals for investors anticipating a TON recovery. However, identifying TON’s price bottom remains difficult. Conflicting macroeconomic signals continue to pressure the broader altcoin market.
