In a milestone moment for one of Web3’s fastest-growing platforms, Telegram-native trading app Blum celebrated its first anniversary this week with a sweep of top honors at Blockchain Forum 2025, the premier crypto event in the CIS region.
Key takeaways
- um reached 93 million users in just one year, becoming one of the fastest-growing crypto platforms in the world.
- The app swept major awards at Blockchain Forum 2025, signaling its dominance in Telegram-native trading and GameFi.
- Blum’s rise reflects a broader Web3 shift toward gamified, attention-driven platforms that merge trading with social engagement.
The company took home awards for Best GameFi App on Telegram, Best Trading App on Telegram, and a personal accolade for Co-Founder Vladimir Smerkis, who was named Web3 Entrepreneur of the Year.
Founded by former Binance executives Gleb Kostarev and Vladimir Smerkis, Blum emerged a year ago with a clear ambition: to build the most user-friendly, multi-platform, and multi-chain crypto trading app fully integrated with Telegram.
That vision has resonated far beyond expectations. In just 12 months, the app has amassed more than 93 million users globally, turning it into one of the most popular crypto platforms.
Its rise reflects a broader trend in Web3 toward products that combine accessibility, entertainment, and social engagement, all core features of the Blum experience.
Speaking at the Forum, Smerkis attributed the company’s success to its deeply engaged user base.
“We never imagined that 93 million people would join us in building a crypto superapp,” he said.
“These awards belong to everyone who launched tokens, streamed live, or used our bots. Your engagement is our biggest win.”
His keynote, titled “Dominate the Attention Economy,” outlined a future in which Web3 platforms compete not on technical complexity, but on their ability to attract and retain attention. “Hype is now an asset. Attention is a currency.
In Web3, you don’t win by being the biggest—you win by being the most interesting,” he told the crowd.
Blum’s first year has been nothing short of explosive. The platform now boasts the second-largest memepad in the world and the top memepad on the TON blockchain, with over 350,000 meme tokens launched and 32 million TON in trading volume.
More than 8,000 live trading streams have taken place on the app, and 39.5 million unique onchain wallets have connected to the platform.
Blum also operates the largest trading bot on TON, which has since expanded to Solana, where over 5 million SOL have already been traded. Its Telegram community is now the second-largest globally, with over 28 million members.
Looking ahead, the company is preparing to roll out a series of features designed to further gamify and simplify the crypto experience.
These include AI-powered tools for launching tokens, meme token creation via autonomous agents, a competitive Trading Arena, self-learning trading strategies, perpetual futures, and a professional-grade terminal supporting multiple blockchains.
Each initiative is aimed at reinforcing Blum’s core proposition: trading as a native experience within Telegram, powered by frictionless UX and viral game mechanics.
Blum’s journey from stealth startup to 93 million users in a single year signals more than just a successful product, it represents a shift in how crypto platforms are built and scaled.
By turning trading into a social game and memes into financial tools, Blum has redefined how Web3 apps engage their communities.
In doing so, it has positioned itself not only as a leader in the Telegram ecosystem but as a bellwether for the future of crypto innovation.
