Toncoin Reaches Record High Amid Speculation Over Telegram’s IPO: A Dive into TON’s Journey

• Toncoin (TON) has bagged an ATH as it displaced Cardano to become the 9th biggest coin.
• The project has a close correlation with Telegram despite their independent operations.

Toncoin (TON), the native cryptocurrency of The Open Network has seen its price break through a record high following rumors that Telegram could soon go public.

The Resilient Toncoin Journey

According to a prior report by Crypto News Flash, Toncoin flipped Cardano’s ADA to become the ninth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. The price of TON has more than doubled in a month, setting a new record high of more than $7 on Tuesday. As of this writing, TON is trading at $7.45, representing an 8.06% increase during the last 24 hours, and trading volume also increased by 7% to $706 million.

Toncoin’s journey in the crypto space is one of resilience and determination. Launched in 2018, TON was born from Telegram’s exploration of suitable blockchain solutions to support decentralized payments, file storage, and other messenger-related applications. Unable to find one, Telegram released the Telegram Open Network (TON) testnet.

Developers, investors, and regular Telegram users showed a great deal of interest in the project within two years of TON’s release. However, Telegram was left with no choice but to abandon the TON following regulatory pressure from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

Before TON’s planned mainnet debut in October 2019, the regulator got a court order to halt the circulation of Grams, the network’s native cryptocurrency. The SEC claimed that the distribution of Grams would constitute an unregistered securities offering. While Telegram challenged the SEC’s charges in court, Judge P. Kevin Castel ruled in favor of the regulator. 

Following the ruling, Telegram announced the end of the TON project and promised to repay $1.22 billion owed to investors. Armed with knowledge about the platform, a group of independent users took over the project from Telegram. This takeover was made possible because, being a public blockchain, Telegram had no authority to prevent third parties from developing applications for TON.

A New Era for Toncoin

In a move towards rebranding the ecosystem, Grams testnet was changed to Toncoins and the T in TON now stands for “the.” Telegram initially disassociated itself from the spinoff blockchain, presumably due to worries that the SEC might penalize any further connections. However, CEO Pavel Durov endorsed the network publicly in 2021.

“Unlike the original TON, Toncoin is independent from Telegram. But I wish its team the same success. Coupled with the right go-to-market strategy, they have all they need to build something epic,” Durov stated.

Despite Telegram’s dissociation from the blockchain, TON and Telegram continue to be tightly connected. This continuing synergy explains the connection between Telegram’s possible IPO and Toncoin’s recent surge.

Recalling Crypto News Flash’s previous disclosures, Telegram introduced Toncoin for advertisers, enabling crypto payouts for content creators within its messaging app. This move has further created a surge in activities for the TON blockchain, positioning it as Telegram’s primary platform for facilitating a thriving social media advertising ecosystem.