What factors catalyzed TON’s strong surge?
Toncoin (TON) continued its ascent this month, surging 50% from its April low, breaking previous all-time highs, and becoming one of the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap! What catalysts have driven TON’s outstanding performance?
What is TON?
The Open Network (TON) was initially created by the popular messaging app Telegram in 2018, aiming to compete with Ethereum. However, after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against the company, Telegram abandoned TON in 2020. This was after the company raised $1.7 billion from private sales, arguing that it was an unregistered security.
Subsequently, a group of independent developers formed NewTON (now known as the TON Foundation) and gained control of the project domain and code repository in 2021. Later that year, they launched The Open Network and distributed TON.
The Catalysts Behind TON’s Surge
While TON has been on an upward trajectory in the cryptocurrency market since September, its value relative to BTC dropped by 70% due to the token’s relatively stagnant performance. However, TON made a strong comeback in March, soaring over 170% in just the past five weeks!
In September last year, Telegram announced they were developing a crypto wallet on The Open Network, leading to a brief surge for TON. However, it wasn’t until last month that market participants fully digested the impact of this partnership.
On March 31, Telegram announced it would allow users to purchase ads with Toncoin, sharing 50% of the advertising revenue from monetized channels with creators through TON distribution.
In addition to Telegram’s attempts to inject Toncoin utility into its app, the decentralized TON Foundation has been working to promote the chain’s usage itself.
Their Open Network activity started on April 1, distributing 30 million TON (valued at $204 million at current prices) to apps and users, with an additional 1 million TON to incentivize users to join HumanCode (the chain’s leading proof-of-identity primitive).
The net effect of all these plans has been very positive not only for the price but also for various on-chain metrics; the number of wallets on The Open Network doubled compared to early March, and TVL increased sixfold!
Bottom Line
Despite TON’s on-chain applications still being in the early stages compared to more mature EVM chains and alternative L1 leaders like Solana, the market is satisfied with the pricing of TON’s success, recognizing the close connection with Telegram and the real-world utility behind Toncoin, which gives it an advantage over assets from other cryptocurrency investments.