Kazakhstan’s Financial Services and Regulation Authority (AFSA) has approved Toncoin (TON) for trading on regulated exchanges, following an audit finding that the digital asset meets the financial regulator’s listing criteria.
Toncoin now joins the list of 107 cryptocurrencies approved by the Kazakh government, including but not limited to TRON (TRX), Polygon (MATIC), Aptos (APT), Stellar (XLM), Avalanche (AVAX), and digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).
Open Network’s gaming ecosystem and developing countries
The open network and its underlying asset, TON, are emerging as a popular choice for value transfer in developing countries. The open network leverages Telegram’s user base of over 800 million daily active users and its messaging system to offer mini apps and in-app payments. Telegram boasts 55 million active users in Kazakhstan, according to data from TGStat.
Blockchain games have become an integral part of the TON ecosystem, with games like Hamster Kombat, Notcoin, Yescoin, and TonPotato capturing the time and attention of users looking to earn extra income.
Related: Telegram and Cryptocurrency: Bitget Launches 20 Million TON Ecosystem Fund.
Hamster Combat, in particular, was successful in making headlines. As the game’s popularity grew, government officials issued warnings and criticism. Recently, Uzbekistan’s National Agency for Perspective Projects (NAPP), the online business and digital commerce regulator, issued a warning message to those looking to utilize the game’s tokens.
Government regulators explained that because Hamster Kombat’s tokens are not on-chain digital assets, they do not fall under the regulator’s purview. To date, there has been no ban on playing the game in the country.
However, NAPP warned citizens that withdrawing coins could be problematic as tokens could be transferred on-chain in the future, making them truly digital assets.
Not all sailing is smooth.
According to SlowMist founder Yu Xian, despite the growth of the TON ecosystem, the network is not without its problems.
Xian, a blockchain security expert, claimed that phishing attacks on The Open Network are increasing as the network rapidly expands as a decentralized blockchain platform.
These phishing attacks are mainly caused by TON’s integration with the native Telegram messaging app, which allows fraudsters to create groups and post malicious links, Xian explained.
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