Toncoin (TON) is one of the recently launched altcoins with quite an unusual background. This project was started by the Russian billionaire and creator of the Telegram messaging app Pavel Durov, but then continued by another development team.
By now, TON has succeeded in increasing its market capitalization to the degree that has allowed it to enter the top ten list and get into the 9th place on it, surpassing Cardano (ADA) and having the largest meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin (DOGE) right ahead of it.
Investors’ attention has now turned towards this promising coin integrated by the Telegram app that has close to one billion active users. Besides, it is also a popular venue for various crypto communities.
A few words about Toncoin, the history of its creation
Toncoin (TON) came to exist as the native digital currency of The Open Network (TON), the decentralized layer-1 blockchain built by Pavel Durov and the Telegram team of developers. It was initially developed in 2017-19. It happened since Telegram was unable to find any blockchain among the ones that existed back then to support its vast user-base consisting of a nine-zero number. Therefore, they chose to create their own blockchain. The idea behind the design was simple – cost-efficiency, high speed and high flexibility.
In order to attract the necessary funds for launching the TON network, Durov opted for a classic way back then – an initial coin offering (ICO) – and organized it in 2018, offering investors the Gram token which was meant to be the native token of the network and Telegram. Later, it was renamed Toncoin. In order not to lose full control over the project, Durov rejected the idea of raising venture capital.
The money raised during the ICO ($1.7 billion raised in two ICO sessions with 44% of the token emittance sold) was planned to fund the further development of Telegram and TON, as well as for covering the operational expenses to do with expanding the ecosystem. Approximately three quarters of the funds were meant to be spent on paying for the equipment, bandwidth, etc. The rest of the ICO money was going to be utilized for paying salaries, office rent, as well as services provided by consultants and lawyers.
However, in 2020, the Telegram team faced a lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission and chose to withdraw from the project. The regulator claimed that Telegram had violated the security laws by not registering the TON token with them.
In 2020, a small team of open-source software developers together with Anatoliy Makosov and Kirill Emelyanenko (the Telegram contest winners) took over the project, dived into TON’s codebase and continued where the Telegram team had left off. While resuming building the project, the new developer team followed the original principles outlined by Durov in the TON whitepaper.
The words behind the TON abbreviation were changed and now it stands not for “Telegram Open Network” but simply “The Open Network.” A few years later, the Ton Foundation was formed and they joined the developer team in supporting the newly built TON blockchain. Similar to all new-generation blockchain (Cardano, etc), TON runs on the Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm (PoS).
Recent TON developments and price surge
In September last year, a newly-built TON wallet was integrated with Telegram and exposed to its vast army of 800 million active users. Once the announcement was made, the TON price jumped by more than 7% at once.
According to a statement from the TON Foundation, all new projects that chose to be built on the TON blockchain would receive fast access to Telegram Ads – Telegram’s native platform for advertising. The feature is scheduled to be rolled out for mass use at the end of this year and, similarly to the X platform, owners of Telegram channels will be entitled to their shares of advertising income made by Telegram – those will be paid out in Toncoin. However, only channels with a significant amount of subscribers will be eligible for those rewards and they must have 1,000 or more users subscribed to them.
Recently, the team distributed 30 million TON among users to enable them to take part in various projects based within the TON ecosystem.
At the start of April, TON saw an enormous price increase, surging by an astounding 38% within just two days. It happened right after the aforesaid announcement about financial rewards for large channel owners.
At press time, TON is trading at $5.239. On April 24, Toncoin changed hands at $7.29 with a decline that followed.
Experts believe that as The Open Network continues to add new features and once Telegram starts using TON not only for paying out financial rewards but once it launches internal payments on the network using Toncoin, the TON price may surge above $6 in 2025-26 and skyrocket to $10-$15 by 2030.
