TON Ventures Spins Out Of TON Foundation After $40 Million Raise

Former members of The Open Network (TON) Foundation have launched a new venture capital firm to accelerate the network’s already bubbling growth.

On Aug. 14, TON Ventures announced a $40 million funding round to support early-stage projects in the TON ecosystem by connecting developers and investors.

TON Ventures is led by Inal K, former gaming lead at the TON Foundation, and Ian W, the firm’s managing director and the former director of TON accelerator. The firm also spun out of the TON Foundation, a non-profit organization supporting the development of The Open Network.

“With our deep experience in the ecosystem, we believe the highest leverage point is in capital allocation for TON,” Ian W said. “We have the exciting opportunity to share our insights and strategies for thriving in the unique design space created by TON and Telegram, empowering a new generation of innovators and builders.”

TON Ventures said it will focus on supporting consumer applications that utilize Telegram’s social features, mini-apps, and tools. In addition to capital, the firm plans to support early-stage projects with Telegram ads and media support as well.

The Rise of TON

The news follows TON’s explosive rise over the past year, with the network’s total value locked (TVL) surging 8,265% in the past 12 months to $945.3 million from $11.3 million.

The network handles more than 5.47 million transactions daily from 12.3 million active wallets, according to TON Stat. Toncoin is the ninth-largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of $17.7 billion after gaining 11% over the past 24 hours, according to The Defiant’s crypto price feeds.

TON has found particular success within the web3 gaming segment. Prominent projects include Notcoin, which boasts 35 million players soon and a $1.2 billion market cap, and Hamster Kombat, which claims 236 million users. However, the number of real users versus bots on Telegram games remains a point of contention.

The TON blockchain was first conceived in December 2017, when Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov and his brother Nikolai Durov conceptualized a blockchain platform integrated with the popular encrypted message app.

The pair published a whitepaper in January 2018, and raised $1.7 billion from private Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) over the following two months. Development began in April 2018, culminating in the launch of a private testnet 12 months later.

However, the project faced legal action from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in October 2019, with the regulator alleging that TON’s ICOs comprised unregistered securities offerings. TON postponed its launch, which was previously planned for Oct. 31, 2019.

In March 2020, a U.S. federal court issued a preliminary injunction preventing TON from distributing the GRAM tokens sold via its ICO. In May 2020, Pavel Durov announced that Telegram would abandon the TON project and begin refunding investors. One month later, Telegram settled with the SEC.

However, TON Labs, a development team that worked alongside Telegram on the TON network, forked the blockchain in May 2020 and rebranded the project from Telegram Open Network to The Open Network.

While TON languished during its early years, the project took off in late 2023 after Telegram introduced features in September 2023 that allowed users to interact with the blockchain, including wallet integrations and support for Toncoin transfers within the app.

Binance embraces TON

TON Ventures’ announcement came on the day after Binance, the largest centralized exchange, revealed it will introduce Toncoin farming via its Launchpool on Aug. 15.

Users will be able to farm TON by staking BNB or FDUSD for 20 days on the platform. The move comes one week after Binance listed Toncoin spot trading on its exchange.

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