I broke a ladle last week. The fact that Pantera Capital is raising funds for its second investment ton
+1.68%
Immediately after creating the token This is the largest investment in tokens in the 21-year history of the company earlier this year. Upon further investigation, I found that Pantera Capital was not alone in this.
Kingsway Capital’s current largest token holding is the TON token, founder and CEO Manuel Stotz told me (not previously reported). Kingsway began buying TON tokens more than two years before Pantera, Stotz said.
Ryze Labs (formerly Sino Global Capital) has also invested heavily in TON tokens. Founder and Managing Partner Matthew Graham told me (again, not previously reported) that Ryze has been a “large buyer” of TON tokens “for some time.”
Animoca Brands started purchasing TON tokens when their value was less than $1, said co-founder and chairman Yat Siu. The company then continued to buy tokens at $1, $1.50 and $2, Siu said. TON is currently trading at around $7.65, making it the 9th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Siu said Animoca is also the largest validator on The Open Network, or TON blockchain.
These investors are primarily attracted to the TON token because the TON blockchain is uniquely and exclusively integrated with Telegram, a messaging app giant with nearly 900 million monthly active users. “For me, the TON token is a distribution play,” Siu said.
Animoca, a game developer and publisher, sees the integration of the TON blockchain and Telegram as a tool to onboard hundreds of millions of users to web3, and ultimately a billion people, Siu said. Some recent games built on the TON blockchain and accessible as mini-apps via Telegram, such as Notcoin and Hamster Kombat, have gained huge popularity.
Will Nuelle, general partner at Galaxy Ventures, also expressed optimism about the TON token in the long term, citing its potential to facilitate payments between a large user base and future financial applications through the Telegram app.
Nuelle said the TON network, with its “massive built-in distribution,” is a “great candidate” to develop layer-one network effects that will drive overall interest in the TON token. When asked if Galaxy Ventures had invested in the TON token, Nuelle said, “Galaxy is generally involved in key ecosystems across various business lines.”
Ryze Labs’ Graham said significant opportunities arise as the TON network evolves into a WeChat-like mini-app ecosystem combined with crypto capabilities. He noted that recent developments such as using TON tokens for ad payments, creator payments, and in-app USDT stablecoin peer-to-peer transactions have led to further growth.
Graham argued that TON and Solana could challenge Ethereum’s dominance in the future. However, he acknowledged that the TON ecosystem is still in its early stages, with many core fundamentals yet to be developed. In addition, he said that the available development tools, frameworks, and libraries are not as robust as those of more established blockchains.
Nuelle also pointed out a major concern about the TON network: that it is too opaque. He said he would encourage developers to continue building block explorers and on-chain data providers and features.
Backed by Telegram’s massive user base and significant investor support, the TON token has reached a market cap of $18.8 billion. Given this high valuation for such a nascent ecosystem, the token certainly has high expectations to live up to.
‘TON’S BIGGEST RISK’
The success of the TON network and token largely depends on Telegram. According to Animoca’s Siu, Telegram’s massive user base is seen as its biggest advantage, but this dependency also carries risks.
Telegram relies on distribution through Apple and Google. These tech giants could potentially oppose Telegram’s integration with the TON network and tokens, which Siu identifies as “the single biggest risk from a systemic perspective.”
Additionally, Xiu added that there is a risk of regulatory scrutiny of the growing TON network and its tokens.
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