The locked value (TVL) of the TON blockchain has surpassed the $300 million mark for the first time, having grown more than tenfold since early March. The surge is partly due to the network’s ongoing ecosystem initiative, the Open League.
The Open League Incentive Program rewards users of TON’s top decentralized applications. Since its launch, the network’s TVL has surged from $23 million in early March to $315 million.


Source: DeFiLlama
The rapid TVL growth is mainly due to decentralized exchanges such as Ston.fi and Dedust, and liquidity staking projects such as Tonstakers and bemo.
In other crypto news: Normie Memecoin team negotiates with hacker, token drops 99%
The team behind base memecoin Normie (NORMIE) has confirmed that it was in negotiations with a hacker who exploited a vulnerability in the project’s smart contracts. The vulnerability caused NORMIE’s market value to plummet by $41.7 million in just three hours.
According to blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain, the hacker contacted Normie’s deployment address on May 26, offering to return 90% of stolen NORMIE tokens.


Source: Lookonchain
The Normie team reportedly accepted the proposal with the condition that the stolen funds, as well as $2.3 million in the development wallet, would be used to issue new tokens to repay NORMIE holders.
The hackers also demanded protection from retaliation and insisted that the tokens be reissued before the funds are returned.
After the vulnerability was exploited, the price of NORMIE plummeted by 96% in one hour, falling from its initial value to $0.0032.


Source: Coingecko
Over the next two and a half hours, the price fell further, reaching 99.5%.
In other crypto news: Friend.tech token drops more than 20%
The native token FRIEND of the Web3 social network Friend.tech has experienced a sharp drop of more than 20%. Previously, the co-founder of the protocol, Racer, anonymously expressed his intention to migrate the project from Ethereum's second-layer network Base.
Racer said that the relationship with the Base team and community was not good. He said: "Farcaster's investors misunderstood our approach when we launched and put a lot of pressure on their team and users. Since then, our relationship with the 'Base community' has been deteriorating."
In response, Jesse Pollak, head of Base at Coinbase, acknowledged that the Friend.tech team feels “isolated and disconnected” within certain parts of the Base and Ethereum ecosystem. However, he expressed respect for whatever path the team decides to take.
Following Racer’s post, the FRIEND token dropped by around 20%.
Cristiano Ronaldo launches fourth batch of NFT collectibles
Football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has announced the launch of his fourth batch of non-fungible tokens (NFT) collectibles. Ronaldo announced his partnership with Binance despite facing a $1 billion lawsuit over Binance advertising.


Source: X
This new batch of collectibles will be released on the Binance NFT marketplace on May 29 to celebrate Ronaldo’s illustrious career and showcase highlights from his legendary journey.
Cristiano has not yet revealed the number and pricing details of the NFTs. However, the post states that the price of "normal NFTs" will be the same. In addition, the pricing structure of the "final ultra-rare NFT" in the series will be different.
Former CEO pleads guilty to losing $47 million in cryptocurrency scheme
Shan Hanes, the former CEO of Heartland Tri-State Bank in Elkhart, Kansas, has pleaded guilty to embezzling millions of dollars and driving the bank into bankruptcy.
According to court documents, Hanes pleaded guilty to embezzlement by a bank official for sending $47.1 million in 10 wire transfers from May to July 2023 to an unknown crypto wallet.
The court sentenced Hanes to a maximum of 30 years in prison.
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