Written by Elizabeth Howcroft

(Reuters) – The worth of a coin referred to as TON has soared in current months, with traders betting that an integration with messenger service Telegram might carry the cryptocurrency to the app's estimated 900 million customers. I'm betting.

Telegram endorsed TON final September, saying the blockchain and associated tokens would turn out to be its “official Web3 infrastructure.” TON introduced earlier this month that it’s going to additionally have the ability to situation tokens on its blockchain, permitting Telegram customers to ship stablecoins to one another throughout the app.

The TON token soared, reaching $7.63 on April 11, in comparison with round $2.21 a 12 months in the past, in response to CoinGecko knowledge.

With a complete circulation of $18.3 billion, it’s the tenth largest cryptocurrency after meme cash.

The prospect of a “tremendous app” or “app for all the things” that might combine funds and procuring with social media and messaging providers has lengthy been the holy grail for traders seeking to China's WeChat for inspiration. On the planet of cryptocurrencies, it’s typically referred to as “SocialFi”, an abbreviation for social finance.

This concept was the driving power behind Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter (now XX) in 2022. Binance, which offered funding for the acquisition, mentioned it could discover how cryptocurrencies might be used on its platform. His Revolut within the UK, on ​​the opposite hand, approached it from a special course, beginning with a monetary app and including social options on high.

Thomas Puch, CEO of digital asset hedge fund Indigo, mentioned TON's attraction is a part of broader curiosity in tremendous apps, however can be being helped by a resurgence in altcoins general.

“Curiosity in alternate options has returned, and because of Telegram's help, many individuals are shopping for into the venture, and TON has outperformed lots of its friends,” he mentioned, including that Indigo has traded TON tokens. added.

TON (brief for “The Open Community”) affords a cryptocurrency pockets product inside Telegram, which has over 6 million month-to-month customers.

Libra failure

Efforts to carry cryptocurrency funds to social media have up to now not been broadly profitable. Fb (NASDAQ:) has introduced that its Libra cryptocurrency venture can be launched after fierce opposition from regulators all over the world who feared it might undermine monetary stability and undermine management over financial coverage. completed.

“The current foray into cryptocurrency funds by Telegram has introduced new use circumstances to the app, however its acceptance and adoption remains to be in its early phases,” mentioned Robert Le, senior analyst at Pitchbook. , mentioned enterprise capital curiosity is rising. Social Phi.

“The principle problem is to alter the notion of customers in non-Asian markets, the place messaging apps are seen primarily as purely for communication relatively than as multi-functional platforms.”

Ram Gopal, a professor at Warwick Enterprise Faculty, mentioned such an integration would pose “regulatory, technical and safety challenges”.

“Regulators could also be involved about how these platforms adjust to present monetary laws,” he mentioned.

He added: “Guaranteeing that customers are shielded from fraud, fraud and potential losses from cryptocurrency fluctuations can be a key concern for regulators.”

historical past of ton

Telegram Messenger raised $1.7 billion in 2018 by making a TON blockchain and promoting associated cryptocurrencies. Nevertheless, the venture was hit by expenses from the U.S. Securities and Change Fee that the token sale violated federal securities legal guidelines.

As a part of its 2020 settlement with the SEC, Telegram agreed to halt growth of TON. It didn’t admit or deny the SEC's allegations.

In line with the historical past on TON's web site, a bunch of unrelated builders then continued work on the venture, choosing up the place Telegram left off.

TON says it’s decentralized, based mostly on an open supply codebase, and has no single administrative authority. Behind it’s a non-profit basis registered in Zug, Switzerland.

A TON spokesperson mentioned Telegram and TON are clearly separate entities.

The president of the TON Basis is Steve Yun, in response to the group's web site. Andrew Rogozov, former CEO of Russian social media website VK, is a founding member of the inspiration, in response to his LinkedIn profile. He spoke at a convention in Dubai the place a partnership to situation stablecoins on the TON blockchain was introduced, together with Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov and Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino.

(This April 30 story has been amended to right the spelling of Indigo's CEO in paragraph 7)