Macauley Peterson

In a sea of red since FTX bankruptcy’s, the native cryptoasset of The Open Network (TON) has been a standout.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Up around 50% since just Nov. 10, the layer-1 proof-of-stake blockchain progeny of Telegram — the messaging app wildly popular among industry participants — sits ahead of the more-familiar names of Chainlink and Cosmos in terms of market capitalization. That’s even after accounting for a 30% retracement from its recent peak notched Dec. 19.&nbsp;



TON’s latest bullish indicator: a fresh $10 million injection earmarked for building out the blockchain’s infrastructure from Cypher Capital, a multi-strategy crypto investment firm based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).



The funding builds upon an earlier $126 million “rescue fund,” <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/30/ton-steward-looks-to-draw-projects-to-its-ecosystem-with-126m-rescue-fund/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">debuted</a> last month to support TON development, then-described as “a soft commitment … ready to deploy whenever there’s a suitable opportunity that is in need of support from the TON community.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



Newly committed funds are set to focus on applications in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Turkey, and India, according to Bill Qian, chairman of Cypher Capital and a board member of the TON Foundation, who in a statement called the network “a game changer in the Web3 space.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Telegram connection&nbsp;</h3>



The bull case for TON leans heavily on its association with Telegram and its <a href="https://www.demandsage.com/telegram-statistics/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">estimated</a> 55 million monthly active users.



Though the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/telegram-users-can-now-send-receive-crypto-following-2-year-hiatus" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SEC in 2019</a> shut down the messenger’s in-house crypto effort, the app remains a major player in the community-forked initiative that relaunched the project in a more decentralized manner.



Telegram service fragment.com, for instance, offers an auction-style marketplace for Telegram usernames, which, unsurprisingly, uses the TON blockchain and corresponding payment token.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“The auction of usernames or anonymous numbers on Telegram is a great demonstration of how the simplicity of tokenization on TON can create many real-world examples of blockchain technology,” a TON spokesperson told Blockworks.
</blockquote>



Transaction fees for such services are paid in TON, the network&#8217;s staking token used to incentivize the validators that process transactions.



Other applications in search of user growth are <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/telegram-wallet-now-lets-users-exchange-crypto-with-each-other" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the @Wallet bot</a> and a privacy-focused TON Proxy service that can access websites through the network’s own DNS service — analogous to the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ens" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ethereum Name Service</a>.



The spokesperson was unable to provide details on the number of such sites created, but said “we believe that this product is in demand within the community, and it is something that we will continue to develop when TON Storage launches,” referring to TON’s equivalent to <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/storage" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">decentralized storage</a> providers such as IPFS or Arweave.



The @Wallet bot within Telegram was used by 1.7 million users in the past year, according to the TON Foundation. Although the bot is a custodial wallet service, it is not operated by Telegram, but rather maintained by independent TON developers.



Non-custodial wallets are also available, namely Tonkeeper, which runs as a standalone mobile app co-founded by TON Foundation “ambassador” Oleg Andreev.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">TON bridge to Ethereum-based dapps</h3>



TON’s treasury is not tracked by <a href="https://openorgs.info/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Openorgs.info</a>, but the TON foundation <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/telegram-users-can-now-send-receive-crypto-following-2-year-hiatus" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said in April</a> it had raised about $1 billion to fund development efforts. TON currently trades for about the same as it did at the time — $2.00 even as of the stock market’s close in New York on Wednesday.



The TON Foundation describes itself as “a non-commercial group of supporters and contributors who help further grow the TON blockchain&#8221;. Founding members include Steve Yun and Andrew Rogozov, ex-CEO of Russian social networking site VK.com.



TON recently gained coverage on <a href="https://defillama.com/chain/TON" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DefiLlama</a> thanks to a decentralized exchange with about $500,000 in total value locked (TVL).



The Foundation provides <a href="https://ton.org/primer.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a bridge</a> to allow TON holders to interact with decentralized applications (dapps) built on Ethereum, such as <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/Uniswap" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Uniswap</a>.



Around 19.2 million TONCOIN — the ERC-20 token <a href="https://etherscan.io/token/0x582d872a1b094fc48f5de31d3b73f2d9be47def1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">representing TON on Ethereum</a> — have been bridged so far, with around $38.5 million held by around 4,900 wallets. About 78% of that amount is concentrated in the top 10 such accounts, including venture capital firm Dragonfly Capital, with 25% of the supply on Ethereum.



It’s not clear what percentage of Telegram users have tried services on the TON blockchain, but data provided by <a href="https://tontech.io/stats/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tontech.io</a> point to steady growth in accounts on the network, which surpassed 1.6 million in December. The number of active users was not available as of publication. 



Updated Dec. 30, 2022 at 6:42 am ET: Clarified Yon and Rogozov&#8217;s status as Ton Foundation founding members.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.



Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin">Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter</a>.



Get alpha directly in your inbox with the <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research">0xResearch newsletter</a> — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.



The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">Subscribe to daily Solana news</a> from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Bucking Crypto Bear Trend, Telegram Progeny Promises a Ton

Sebastian Sinclair

<div id="highlights-block_626c01b2a93a8" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The TON Foundation announced Tuesday a new bot for use within social app Telegram, enabling users to send and receive Toncoin to one another</li>
 <li>It marks the first time Telegram has added crypto functionality onto its platform following a bout with the SEC in 2019</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Cryptocurrency functionality has been added back into the social app Telegram following a more than two-year hiatus stemming from a lengthy bout with the SEC in 2019.



Users can now send and receive Toncoin, as well as make bitcoin purchases via the app, according to a Tuesday <a href="https://twitter.com/ton_blockchain/status/1518940393370537985?s=20&amp;t=evqVezCJYaL_Bc2JpMOnUw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweet</a> by The Open Network (TON) Foundation. Telegram boasts more than 550 million active users and is one of the world&#8217;s most popular social networks.



The foundation is responsible for the development of the TON blockchain which enables the crypto infrastructure for use within the social app. Last week, the foundation announced that it had raised $1 billion in donations to further its development efforts.



Following that announcement, Toncoin rose 14.3% from around $2.03 on Tuesday to $2.32 by Wednesday before succumbing to sell-side market pressure. As of press time, the token is down 10% over a 24-hour period and is changing hands for $2.06, data by provider <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/the-open-network" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CoinGecko</a> shows.



Users are not required to pay transaction fees and will no longer need to enter long crypto addresses with wallet functionality embedded into the app, according to the announcement.



It marks the first time the app has restored crypto functionality since its battle with the SEC in October 2019. Telegram abandoned the project shortly after being requested by the securities regulator to cease the sale of its native &#8220;Gram&#8221; tokens. As part of <a href="https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2020-146" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a 2020 settlement</a>, Telegram was required to return the $1.2 billion the company raised in the token sale and ordered to pay an $18.5 million fine.



“Telegram’s active involvement with TON is over,” Telegram founder and CEO <a href="https://telegra.ph/What-Was-TON-And-Why-It-Is-Over-05-12" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pavel Durov</a> wrote at the time.



By May 2020, Telegram&#8217;s involvement with TON became less clear, and the development of the TON blockchain was overtaken by various enthusiasts and projects, who forked the original project&#8217;s open-source code.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.



Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin">Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter</a>.



Get alpha directly in your inbox with the <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research">0xResearch newsletter</a> — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.



The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">Subscribe to daily Solana news</a> from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.