Andrey Fedorov on Scaling TON’s DeFi Ecosystem

Interview Questions for Andrey Fedorov, CMO & CBDO at STON.fi Dev 

In this exclusive interview with Andrey Fedorov, CMO & CBDO at STON.fi Dev, we discussed how one of the top earners in TON is defining its next growth strategy. Andrey spoke in Hong Kong at a critical time for the global Web3 community and shared his insights on the ecosystem’s expansion, cross-chain strategy, infrastructure partnerships, and how developer-focused innovation plays a crucial role in driving real adoption. From navigating the key industry events to establishing sustainable liquidity and distribution channels, this discussion shows how STON.fi is placing itself at the epicenter of the transforming Web3 of TON.

1. Hong Kong has become a key meeting point for global Web3 builders and capital. With Consensus and Hack Seasons happening back-to-back, why was it important for STON.fi to be present at both events this year, and what does this moment say about the broader direction of the TON ecosystem and your role within it?

For STON.fi, being in Hong Kong this year is about being inside the conversation. As one of the core DeFi protocols on TON, STON.fi doesn’t want to look at the market from a distance. It wants to talk to people, hear how they think, and see where things are moving.

Consensus and Hack Seasons give you very different signals. At Consensus, you’re talking to key industry players and ecosystem teams — people who are thinking about how the whole industry works and where growth might come from next. Hack Seasons is much more hands-on. You’re sitting with builders, looking at real products, hearing what breaks and what slows them down. When you combine both, you start to see how TON fits into the wider picture — and often, we’re the ones explaining that picture.

TON as an ecosystem has grown a lot. Through Telegram, products are already reaching millions of users, and inside the ecosystem we’ve built a solid liquidity base. That puts STON.fi in a new phase. It’s not just about building more things on TON; it’s about opening it up.

As a core tech contributor, we’re actively working on our cross-chain solution, which will help STON.fi starting to connect with the first partners, it’ll be collaborating with them very soon. The project’s goal is straightforward: use the liquidity and distribution TON already has, connect it to other ecosystems, and bring value back both ways. We’re not rushing it, but we feel the ecosystem is ready — and we want to help make those connections happen.

2. STON.fi has been known for its strategic approach to partnerships and ecosystem growth. As CMO & CBDO at their core developer, what criteria do you believe STON.fi prioritizes when evaluating potential partners, and how does it balance strategic value vs. scalable distribution impact?

First, I don’t see scalable distribution impact and strategic value as opposing forces. Together with STON.fi, we’re building infrastructure, and in that context, scalable distribution is strategic.

STON.fi usually starts from a very practical question: Does this partnership solve a real problem for builders or users right now? If it doesn’t, it’s probably not worth doing.

In most cases, teams come to STON.fi because they need liquidity and swap infrastructure that just works. They don’t want to build routing, execution, or liquidity management themselves. They want to plug in, rely on it, and focus on their product and the audience. So the first thing STON.fi looks at whether its infrastructure actually fits their use case — and whether they can integrate and ship without friction.

From there, STON.fi thinks about scale. Will this setup still work when volumes grow, traffic spikes, or when we move cross-chain? Partnerships shouldn’t be fragile. If something only works in a narrow setup, it usually doesn’t last.

Distribution comes naturally from that. When teams use your infrastructure as part of their core product, you become part of their stack. That’s the strongest form of partnership.

In some cases, this also opens up new entry points into the ecosystem. The collaboration with Privy is a good example. They work with teams building apps with embedded wallets, and by plugging Omniston underneath, those teams can add swaps on TON in minutes, without building custom infrastructure. It’s the same logic — just one step earlier in the builder journey —, and it helps bring more teams and users into TON in a smoother way.

At the end of the day, STON.fi doesn’t separate strategy from usage. If the infrastructure is useful, it gets used. Everything else follows from that.

3. STON.fi has supported dozens of TON-native projects through grants and ecosystem programs. Why is ecosystem building so central to your long-term strategy?

For STON.fi, ecosystem building isn’t something extra — it’s how the infrastructure actually gets better.

You can build the best liquidity or swap layer in the world, but if there aren’t enough real products using it, it doesn’t matter. TON works because builders are shipping things that people actually use — wallets, apps, games, and payments inside Telegram. Supporting those teams early helps the whole system move faster.

Grants and ecosystem programs are a practical tool. They help teams get from an idea to a working product without getting stuck on the basics. And for us, it’s also a way to learn. When dozens of teams build on top of your infrastructure, you see very quickly what works, what breaks, and what needs to improve.

Long-term, this creates a feedback loop. More teams are built. Liquidity grows. Infrastructure gets better. That makes the ecosystem more attractive for the next wave of builders. STON.fi’s role is to keep that loop running — not by controlling it, but by supporting it in a way that’s useful and sustainable.

4. What role do you see STON.fi playing within the broader Web3 ecosystem this year, particularly in terms of business development and driving adoption through collaborations?

This year, we see our role as quite focused — and it sits between builders and end users.

On one side, STON.fi works with teams that need reliable swap and liquidity infrastructure. On the other side, everything STON.fi ships eventually affects people using TON apps, often without even realizing there’s DeFi infrastructure underneath. That’s an important balance for the project.

From the product side, the team is working on several upgrades that are meant to improve both integration quality and user experience. We plan to roll out a protocol upgrade with concentrated liquidity and a new API later this year, which should help partners build faster and also improve performance and reliability for users at the end of the chain. These changes are mostly invisible, but they matter when real traffic comes in.

At STON.fi Dev, we’re also developing cross-chain functionality step by step. The current focus is on early integrations and testing, starting with a closed alpha and then a public beta between TON and TRON. From a user perspective, the goal is simple: smoother access to liquidity across ecosystems, without adding complexity to the experience. 

Some of the other features in development are mainly for advanced use cases, but they also play a role in making pricing, execution, and liquidity more consistent for users. 

So when we talk about adoption through collaboration, it’s not only about more integrations. It’s about making sure that when users open a TON app, swaps are fast, pricing is fair, and things just work. If users don’t have to think about the infrastructure, that’s usually a sign we’re doing our job right.

5. Looking ahead, what key partnerships or business strategies is STON.fi most excited about in 2026, and how do you anticipate these will shape the project’s distribution roadmap?

Looking into 2026, STON.fi is focused on partnerships that directly shape how the infrastructure gets used.

One area is wallets and user-facing apps, both on TON and in other ecosystems. Telegram gives TON strong distribution, but STON.fi’s goal is broader than that. It wants teams outside of TON to be able to use our liquidity and swap infrastructure where it makes sense for their products.

Another key focus is cross-chain. At STON.fi Dev, we’re actively developing this now, and in 2026, we plan to work more closely with a small number of technical partners to bring Omniston into real cross-ecosystem setups. The priority is quality over speed — making sure integrations work in production before expanding further.

STON.fi is also deepening relationships with professional liquidity providers and advanced integrators. Features like concentrated liquidity and partner tooling are built with them in mind, but they ultimately improve pricing and execution for end users.

Overall, STON.fi’s strategy is simple: build infrastructure that other teams actually want to use, wherever their users are. If it gets that right, distribution becomes a result, not a goal.