The Open Network Foundation has announced that it raised over $400 million through a token sale, with backing from prominent venture capital firms, including Sequoia Capital, Ribbit, Benchmark, and Kingsway.
TON Foundation Raises $400 in TON
The investment, made in Toncoin (TON) rather than traditional cash or equity, according to a TON Foundation spokesperson, signaled growing confidence in the TON blockchain’s integration within Telegram’s ecosystem at a time in which the popular messaging platform has, according to its founder Pavel Durov, surpassed 1 billion users.
TON powers a range of decentralized applications (dApps) and other mini-apps within Telegram, the second-largest messaging app in the world behind China’s WeChat. According to the foundation, over the past year, the blockchain’s active user base has exceeded 40 million, while Toncoin has reached 121 million unique holders.
Investors see the project as a bridge between traditional finance and blockchain-based applications:
The TON team is the best in the world at the intersection of consumer product thinking and crypto infrastructure,” said Shaun Maguire, a partner at Sequoia Capital.
The investors in the token sale included Vy Capital, Draper Associates, Libertus Capital, CoinFund, Hypersphere, SkyBridge, and Karatage. The TON Foundation says the capital infusion will help it further develop its ecosystem and drive the adoption of blockchain-powered services within Telegram.
Toncoin Rises on Investment Reports
After reports of the TON Foundation raising $400 million started circulating, the price of Toncoin (TON) jumped from around $3.6 to $3.8 at the time of writing.
The price rise of around 5.5% means that TON has, over the last 24-hour period,d outperformed the broader cryptocurrency market, with BTC itself up just 1.5% over the period and other major altcoins, including ETH, XR and SOL, dropping between 1.4% and 2.8%.
