By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 25th, 2024
Last week’s rally may have been directly linked to a more recent announcement by the TON Foundation.
Toncoin (TON), the cryptocurrency linked with popular messaging platform Telegram, is arguably the biggest gainer among the top 100 digital assets at the moment. This follows after the token price surged by over 8% overnight, signaling a bullish momentum.
As of publication, TON is up 2.43% on the daily chart and 23.57% on the weekly chart and was seen trading at $2.64, per CoinMarketCap data.
Interestingly, the recent gains have been enough to catapult TON to the list of top cryptocurrencies in terms of their market capitalization. With a market cap of over $9 billion, which is also its highest ever, TON is now ranked 10th on the log. That is after displacing Tron (TRX), whose market cap is just over $8 billion.
What Drives TON Price Surge and Token Popularity?
Recall that TON first climbed to the top 10 in September. However, that was on the heels of its announcement of a self-custodial digital wallet TON Space, which allows Telegram users to buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrencies directly on the app. Bearing in mind that Telegram boasts over 700 million monthly active users, it was nearly inevitable to see a boost in the coin’s adoption.
Although that rally was short-lived, last week’s rally may have been directly linked to a more recent announcement by the TON Foundation. On October 31, the foundation revealed that it had achieved “the highest transaction speed for a blockchain in the world.” This was during a live performance test of the TON blockchain.
🚀 #TON is now officially the fastest #blockchain in the world, hitting 104,715 transactions per second! ⚡️
Validated and confirmed by @CertiK @CertiKCommunity ✅ pic.twitter.com/V8Q3RUAt5I
— TON 💎 (@ton_blockchain) October 31, 2023
As expected, the news was greeted with great excitement, causing a surge in Toncoin activity.
Additionally, the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) recently approved the use of TON within its special economic zone. This directly translates to giving access to over 4,000 financial institutions to use TON as they deem fit.
In more recent news, Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced this week that he’ll be giving away 10,000 premium Telegram subscriptions to random members of his channel. Barely 24 hours later, Durov shared that he bought the subscriptions for $200,000 worth of Toncoin.
Rollercoaster Ride
Meanwhile, it is worth mentioning that it hasn’t exactly been a smooth ride for the TON blockchain since it was introduced in 2018. The proof-of-stake-based model project was initially abandoned when the SEC slammed it with a lawsuit in 2020. At the time, the regulator claimed that Telegram violated securities regulations with its 2018 $1.7 billion initial coin offering (ICO).
However, the TON Foundation soon took over the project, launching the Open Network, and generally bringing it back to life. The new network allows Telegram users to make commissionless crypto transfers among themselves. Other than the free transfers, the Open Network also comes with additional features, such as TON Storage and TON Proxy.