Futures Trading on Telegram’s TON Blockchain Jumped Tenfold in a Week. Can It Take Traders From Hyperliquid?

TON perpetual futures trading reached a remarkable $100.4 million during the week, up over 1,000% from the previous week, according to DeFiLlama. The Open Network (TON) is a blockchain built around the Telegram platform, and perpetual futures are contracts that do not expire, allowing traders to speculate on a cryptocurrency’s price while using leverage.

Most of this trading activity came from one app: Storm Trade. This decentralized exchange, which operates on Telegram and on the web, accounted for $100.3 million of total TON trading volume. To draw traders away from Hyperliquid (CRYPTO: HYPE), currently priced at $86 and up 2.5% over the last 24 hours, TON will need significantly more than just one active week.

TON’s coin, Gram (CRYPTO: GRAM), formerly known as Toncoin, did not partake in this rally. It currently trades at $1.17, down 2.8% in the last 24 hours and 4% over the past week, placing it 85.8% below its all-time high of $8.25.

Storm Trade Collects the Fees, and They Buy Back STORM, Not GRAM

Storm Trade brands itself as the first decentralized derivatives trading platform on Telegram, allowing users to trade cryptocurrencies, stocks, forex, and commodities with leverage—all without leaving the app. The latest version, Storm V3, launched on August 31 and significantly cut trading fees for most pairs by half.

Storm generates revenue from these trading fees, and its high-risk feature, Degen Mode, charges 0.02% per trade plus 0.005% for each hour a position is held. Notably, Storm uses a portion of its fee revenue to buy back its own token, STORM (CRYPTO: STORM), rather than GRAM. On its busiest day this year, Storm purchased back 1.38 million STORM tokens.

GRAM plays a supporting role on Storm through vaults—pools where users deposit coins to back the platform’s trading activities. In August, Storm’s GRAM vault returned 0.47%, and the reported trading volume for that month was $38.7 million, indicating the recent spike in late October came from a relatively small base.

A 500x Leverage Setting Drove Most of TON’s Trading Surge

The surge in trading volume is largely driven by leverage rather than the Telegram platform alone. On October 8, Storm introduced three new Degen trading pairs, including HYPEDEGEN, which offers up to 500x leverage. At this level, even a slight price move against a trader’s position could trigger a forced liquidation.

Storm reported that daily trading volume peaked at $72.2 million on October 29, with Degen Mode accounting for most of that total. HYPEDEGEN alone generated more than $64 million, making it the most active trading pair on TON, and it tracks Hyperliquid’s own token, which Hyperliquid buys back daily.

The reported volume may also inflate traders’ actual investment. DeFiLlama counts the entire position size, including leverage. In an October campaign, Storm encouraged users to achieve $10,000 or more in trading volume with just a $10 investment by using 500x leverage. This campaign, done in collaboration with the staking app Tonstakers, provided ten NFTs as rewards and concluded on October 22, just days before the record trading day.

Hyperliquid Is Far Bigger Than TON’s Telegram Traders

Despite the excitement around TON’s surge, it’s essential to recognize that Hyperliquid operates on a much larger scale. Storm’s audience may seem substantial with 860,000 subscribers to its news channel, but the post announcing the record day only received about 1,300 views.

Meanwhile, Hyperliquid continues to dominate the perpetual futures space, with HYPE valued at around $20.6 billion and ranking 10th in the market, while GRAM is valued at $3.3 billion, placing it 31st.

Telegram has not committed to actively promoting Storm, even as AI-driven futures trading gains traction on the platform. Additionally, Storm doesn’t require traders to use GRAM as margin or pay fees in GRAM, meaning TON’s trading volume could grow without increasing demand for GRAM.

Can TON Perpetual Futures Attract Traders From Hyperliquid?

So far, TON’s perpetual futures haven’t pulled traders away from Hyperliquid, and the recent record week hasn’t translated into significant gains for GRAM. While Storm benefited from higher fees and STORM buybacks, GRAM accrued only minor network fees and a few vault deposits.

In fact, GRAM hit its one-year low of approximately $1.16 on October 29, the same day Storm celebrated its milestone, and it continues to trade below its 20-day average of $1.28 (9.4% higher).

To become competitive, TON may require additional exchanges, sustained trading volume beyond the 500x markets, and more support from Telegram for perpetual trading. If weekly trading volume can maintain or exceed $100 million through the end of November, with help from another protocol, and GRAM closes above $1.28, this could indicate potential for lasting adoption.

However, if the volume declines once traders lose interest in HYPEDEGEN, this boost may just be a temporary spike fueled by leverage.

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