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Telegram’s TON Blockchain Gains Momentum
Among the most successful cryptocurrency projects of the year is the one associated with Telegram Messenger, WhatsApp’s main competitor, whose blockchain ambitions have already infuriated US authorities.
While there has been a general recovery in the cryptocurrency market, with Bitcoin hitting new highs until its latest dip, The Open Network (TON) blockchain has taken a central role.
Over the course of 2024, TON has defied market trends with a 1,400% increase in total value locked (TVL), briefly surpassing $1 billion. This surge in value has propelled TON into the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap, and it is currently valued at around $18 billion.
The price of the native cryptocurrency TON has risen from $2.33 at the beginning of the year to $7.15, demonstrating growing investor confidence and market demand.
Leveraging Telegram’s User Base
Source: Statista (data as of April 2024)
At the heart of TON’s success is its strategic alignment with Telegram, which has over 900 million monthly active users globally. Leveraging this large user base, TON aims to transform Telegram into a full-fledged “super-app,” integrating social media, gaming, and potentially financial services into its ecosystem. This ambitious vision positions Telegram uniquely in the competitive landscape of digital platforms.
A notable component of TON’s ecosystem expansion includes its foray into gaming through titles like Hamster Kombat. Launched under the Telegram umbrella as a “mini-app,” Hamster Kombat has quickly become one of the fastest-growing games in the world, attracting millions of users worldwide each day, reaching an estimated 239 million users prior to the token’s launch, second Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov. This success underscores Telegram’s strategic shift toward integrating entertainment and social engagement into its platform, potentially improving user engagement and retention across its ecosystem.
Future perspectives
In an effort to improve scalability and transaction efficiency, TON is integrating Layer 2 solutions, similar to those pioneered on Ethereum. Solutions like Atlas Protocol and TON App Chain (TAC) are facilitating faster transaction speeds and lower costs, attracting developers and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications that aim to exploit the growing TON infrastructure.
TON has already made great strides in blockchain technology. The platform’s architecture supports a wide range of decentralized applications (dApps), aiming to provide a robust environment for developers to innovate and deploy scalable solutions.
However, despite its promising performance, TON faces regulatory hurdles, particularly regarding Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance, which are key to sustaining long-term growth and investor confidence.
However, TON remains optimistic about its future prospects, supported by continued technological advancements and strategic investments from firms such as Pantera Capital. The evolution of the ecosystem, characterized by improved functionality and expanded use cases, aims to redefine digital communication and financial interactions on a global scale.
Telegram’s 2018 ICO raised $1.7 billion for its TON blockchain project through the sale of “Gram” tokens. The SEC argued that Grams were unregistered securities under U.S. law, leading to a lawsuit seeking to halt the token’s distribution. Despite Telegram’s efforts to defend its position, a U.S. district court sided with the SEC, granting a preliminary injunction in October 2019. This legal battle culminated in June 2020 with Telegram agreeing to solve the case paying $18.5 million in penalties and returning $1.2 billion to investors for missing a deadline to launch its TON platform.