TADA: A New Path Toward Mass Web3 Adoption
"Are you paying for my ride with crypto?" Kay, a Singapore driver, was surprised to learn that the journalist had paid for the trip in cryptocurrency — because Kay, as the driver, still received payment in Singapore dollars. At Singapore's Token 2049 event, a Web3 ride-hailing app called TADA mini suddenly took off. Word spread fast, and almost overnight, Web3 professionals from around the world who had come to Singapore for the conference switched from Grab to TADA mini.
"Are you paying for my ride with crypto?"
Kay, a Singapore driver, was surprised to learn that the journalist had paid for the trip in cryptocurrency — because Kay, as the driver, still received payment in Singapore dollars.
At Singapore's Token 2049 event, a Web3 ride-hailing app called TADA mini suddenly took off.
Word spread fast, and almost overnight, Web3 professionals who had flown into Singapore for the conference switched from Grab to TADA mini. Foresight News observed that at the ride-hailing pickup areas outside various conference venues, many attendees would wrap up their meetings, pull out Telegram, tap into TADA mini, and experience crypto-powered ride-hailing for the first time.
According to TADA's official announcement, accounting for shared rides, approximately 10,000 people used crypto to hail rides during TOKEN 2049.
Meanwhile, as Web3 insiders eagerly debated why the product had gone viral so quickly, Singapore's drivers and the general public barely noticed anything had changed. Naturally, they had no sense of the sweeping transformation underway in Telegram and its backed Web3 ecosystem — the TON chain — that was powering TADA's push.
A Unique Web3 Experiment
"See that building over there — the one that's more than 20 floors tall? That's Grab's headquarters. But I heard TADA only has around 20 people," Kay, the Singapore driver, told a Foresight News reporter.
In Singapore's ride-hailing industry, Grab — the dominant app — occupies more than 20 floors of office space, while TADA, the number-two player, is seen by local drivers as a small team of roughly 20 people. In reality, Foresight News understands that TADA now has over 300 employees and more than 300,000 drivers across 7 countries worldwide. By end of 2024, TADA mini will be operating in four countries including Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and others. Hong Kong is also expected to become a key growth market for TADA mini going forward.
In the eyes of Kay — the head of HashKey Chain — Kay, the founder of TADA, is an entrepreneur with a deep understanding of crypto.
"We had an in-depth conversation at the KBW conference in Korea, and he said there were big moves coming. This is what he meant," said Kay.
Kay from HashKey had been watching TADA's founder for a while. She first took notice of the company while going through Bybit's listing review process. At the time, TADA was virtually unknown in the crypto industry, and no one could have imagined that such an "outlier company" could execute a crypto strategy this well.
"Small teams have their advantages. They have the drive, the spirit, and the boldness to seize new ecosystems," said Kay, the Singapore driver. For TADA, Singapore draws a large volume of tourists and conference attendees from around the world. While the share of passengers paying in crypto is still small, as crypto becomes more mainstream, this user segment could grow into a significant portion of TADA's customer base.
As for Grab, although they were among the first to pay attention to crypto and integrate crypto features into their product, those features haven't changed in a year — impossible to open or use, essentially decorative.
Driver Kay is a local Singaporean of Chaoshan descent, whose grandfather settled in Singapore. He noted that ride-hailing in Singapore is essentially a two-player market between Grab and TADA, with Grab holding the dominant share.
When asked which of the two is easier to work with, Kay said: "I feel more comfortable with TADA because we have the freedom to decline orders. Grab, on the other hand, tightly controls driver behavior. You have to accept every order — if you don't, you get penalized."
Grab's dominance has left Singapore's drivers trapped inside its algorithm.
Kay was candid: "(It's exactly like the early competitive days between China's Didi and Kuaidi.) Grab and Uber also went head-to-head. In the end, Grab — backed by the Singapore government as an investor — acquired Uber and took over the market."
"In the battle against Grab, drivers gradually lost their voice, and Grab's commission fees kept climbing — from 20% up to 25%." TADA is different. No matter how far a passenger travels, whether they book or cancel a ride, TADA only charges a flat $1 fee.
Kay was genuinely surprised to find out the journalist had paid for the ride with crypto. This was because Kay, as the driver, still received his payout in Singapore dollars.
Behind TADA: Telegram's Two Powerful Weapons
Behind TADA's successful push into crypto payments, Telegram's ecosystem is undergoing a major transformation.
"Telegram is essentially copying WeChat wholesale. Rumor has it that Telegram CEO Durov visited Zhang Xiaolong long ago and closely studied WeChat's development. The launch of mini apps on Telegram was directly inspired by WeChat," said Akio.
Akio is a former head of Tencent Blockchain and now a TON ecosystem entrepreneur, having founded Televerse. Most of his team are ex-Tencent employees. He noted that there are many former Tencent staff working in the TON chain ecosystem — some hired directly by Telegram — responsible for recreating WeChat's mini-program experience on Telegram.
What is Telegram going after? Two things: first, they want to build out mini apps; second, they want to roll out TON-based crypto payments — the Web3 equivalent of WeChat Pay.
Put simply, Telegram used to be a pure social messaging app. Now they're layering in "mini apps" and "crypto payments," with the goal of turning it into a global version of WeChat.
TADA successfully launched a "Web3 ride-hailing app" in this context. According to Foresight News reporters, the cost of TADA's effort may have been relatively low.
KiloEx, a crypto derivatives platform, told Foresight News: "It only takes a few days to deploy a web app as a Telegram Mini App. You don't even need to hire additional staff. If you want to build a native mobile app, you'd need to bring on two more people — that's expensive for a startup and requires extra marketing spend."
KiloEx is a perpetual DEX on the opBNB and Manta Pacific chains, backed by Binance Labs, Foresight Ventures, the Manta Foundation, and others. KiloEx's Mini App went live yesterday inside UXUY's Telegram wallet Mini App. Users can now easily trade perpetuals directly from their phones. Foresight News has noted that very few on-chain derivatives platforms have entered the mobile space in crypto — but with Telegram's rise, that may change soon.
Foresight News has observed that very few on-chain derivatives platforms have entered the mobile space in crypto. However, with Telegram's emergence, this situation may change soon.
Benjamin told Foresight News that his company won't directly integrate with the TON chain at this stage, but they are open to "mobilizing" their platform — giving users more convenient options and a richer experience.
This was also a broader pattern Foresight News reporters observed throughout TOKEN 2049: Web3 is pivoting toward mobile, and many public chain projects are exploring or have already built Telegram Mini App versions of their platforms. This doesn't affect their standing on existing public chains, but it lets crypto users enjoy the convenience of mobile access, unlocks larger potential user pools, and is genuinely a win-win.
Telegram has pointed the way toward a new path for mass Web3 adoption.