The Open Network (TON) blockchain is positioning itself as a leader in decentralized finance (DeFi) innovation in 2025, thanks to a strategic partnership with decentralized exchange Curve Finance. Together, TON and Curve are supporting DeFi’s growth through a new competition designed to attract developers to create stable asset swaps using Curve’s proprietary technology.
TON’s DeFi Vision: Building the Foundation
The TON Foundation recently shared its plans to establish essential DeFi protocols and projects on its platform. In a blog post, TON’s DeFi lead, Vlad Degen, outlined how the network is completing what it calls its “first tier” of DeFi primitives. This foundation includes lending solutions, liquidity staking, and Constant Product Market Maker protocols, which are essential for the DeFi ecosystem’s core infrastructure.
Emerging projects on TON’s “second tier” will focus on advanced features such as launchpads, options, derivatives, and cross-network bridges that will allow new assets, including popular stablecoins, to be added to the ecosystem.
To accelerate this DeFi expansion, TON’s partnership with Curve Finance includes a competition to develop Curve’s Constant Functional Market Maker (CFMM) technology on TON’s network. CFMM helps to reduce price volatility and minimize slippage in stable asset swaps—a valuable advancement for decentralized exchanges. Given that projects need a license to use CFMM technology, this competition offered DeFi teams a unique opportunity to build with Curve’s innovations on the TON blockchain.
Competition Winners Gain Funding, Incentives, and Integration Opportunities
Out of 70 teams that applied, 10 were accepted, and five teams ultimately completed their CFMM protocols for the final round. Torch Finance and Crouton Finance emerged as the winners. Each will receive $150,000 in funding from TON to cover audits, as well as liquidity for new stablecoin pools and incentives to attract usage.
The liquidity provided by Torch Finance and Crouton Finance will integrate into CrossCurve, a cross-chain trading and yield protocol led by Curve founder Michael Egorov. CrossCurve aims to create a unified liquidity market by pooling resources from Curve’s existing ecosystems, allowing seamless cross-chain liquidity and yield generation.
Furthermore, seven venture capital firms have made preliminary commitments to invest $2.3 million in Torch Finance and Crouton Finance, providing the winners with additional support as they develop their projects.
Future Plans: Cross-Chain Incentives to Boost Stablecoin Usage
To further stimulate DeFi on TON, the network will soon launch $500,000 worth of incentives to facilitate stablecoin exchanges between TON and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) networks. This initiative will enhance TON’s cross-chain capabilities and broaden the range of assets that can flow between its ecosystem and other popular blockchain networks.
This partnership between TON and Curve Finance marks a major step toward building a seamless DeFi experience across blockchains, with significant financial backing and a focus on developing key protocols that could define the future of decentralized finance.
