Author: Jack Inabinet, Bankless; Compiler: Baishui, Golden Finance
Toncoin (TON) continues to rise this month, becoming one of the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization after surging 50% from its April lows and hitting its previous all-time high! What catalysts are driving TON's outperformance?
The Open Network (TON) was originally created in 2018 by the popular messaging app Telegram as a competitor to Ethereum, but the company abandoned TON in 2020 after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against the company because it raised $1.7 billion from a private placement and argued that it was an unregistered security.
A group of independent developers then formed NewTON (now called the TON Foundation) and gained control of the project's domain and code repository in 2021, before launching The Open Network and distributing TON later that year.
While TON has been in rally mode within the cryptocurrency markets since September, with the token’s relatively stagnant performance causing it to lose 70% of its value relative to BTC, TON has been catching up in March, gaining over 170% in the past five weeks alone!
Source: TradingView
TON experienced a brief surge in strength last September after Telegram announced that they were developing a crypto wallet on The Open Network, but it wasn’t until last month that market participants seriously digested the impact of the partnership.
On March 31, Telegram announced that it would allow users to purchase ads with Toncoin, sharing 50% of the ad revenue of monetized channels with creators through TON distribution.
In addition to Telegram’s attempts to inject Toncoin utility into its applications, the decentralized TON Foundation is also working to promote the use of the chain itself.
Their Open Alliance campaign kicks off on April 1st and will distribute 30 million TON (worth $204 million at current prices) to applications and users, with an additional 1 million TON to incentivize users to join HumanCode, the chain’s leading proof-of-identity primitive.
The net impact of all these initiatives has been very positive not only for price but also for a variety of on-chain metrics; compared to early March, the number of wallets on The Open Network has doubled, and TVL has increased 6x!
Although TON’s on-chain use cases are still in their infancy compared to more mature EVM chains and alternative L1 leaders such as Solana, the market is pricing in the success of the TON chain, acknowledging that the close connection with Telegram and the real-world utility behind Toncoin give it an edge over assets from other cryptocurrency investments.
Standard Chartered Bank believes that Bitcoin could benefit from Trump's victory and the dominance of U.S. fiscal policy.
WeiliangAs the US braces for upcoming elections, the political landscape is witnessing a surge in discussions surrounding digital currency policies as well as over $102M raised by crypto PACs.
CatherineThe EU's controversial Anti-Money Laundering Regulation aims to bolster financial defenses but faces criticism for potentially infringing on privacy and stifling innovation. Globally, the cryptocurrency conundrum persists, as nations grapple with balancing financial security with individual liberties in regulating this evolving landscape.
AnaisEther traders reinforce short positions as Grayscale's ETF withdrawal fuels speculation over classification, ETF approvals, and Ethereum's future trends.
AlexBitpanda partners with Raiffeisen and opens a Dubai office, leveraging regulatory clarity in Europe and the UAE to fuel crypto adoption.
MiyukiAfter a $71 million wallet poisoning scam, hackers laundered funds through 400 wallets, making them difficult to trace, but investigators remain hot on their trail.
WeiliangSEC Chair Gary Gensler has garnered attention for his notably cautious yet controversial approach to crypto, along with spearheading an assertive enforcement campaign targeting prominent companies within the crypto sector.
KikyoSocial media platforms, particularly Meta's, are increasingly targeted by scammers worldwide, raising concerns about user safety and the effectiveness of platform moderation. Despite efforts to combat scams, Meta's response to fabricated news and inadequate safety measures underscore the ongoing challenge of protecting users from online threats.
WeatherlyBitcoin briefly dropped to $60,888, triggering a $140 million liquidation across the entire cryptocurrency market, while the U.S. Bitcoin spot ETF faced renewed capital outflow challenges.
AlexReporters from "China Business Journal" learned that on May 7th local time, TikTok and ByteDance filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court, seeking a ruling that the "Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology (RESTRICT) Act," which aims to ban TikTok, is unconstitutional, and to prevent the enforcement of the law. In the lawsuit, TikTok stated, "This is the first time in Congress's history that a law has been enacted to impose a permanent, nationwide ban on a specific speech platform."
Miyuki