The secret behind Toncoin’s success

Toncoin has been on an unstoppable run so far this year, with Telegram now on the verge of attracting one billion monthly active users. But will this continue?

The ranking of the world’s largest cryptocurrencies by market cap doesn’t change very often. Bitcoin has secured its place at number one, Ether (ETH) is a solid second, and Tether (USDT) is an unshakable third.

But there’s one digital asset that has risen in stature in recent months — and that’s Toncoin. Touted as the “future of currency,” it has close ties to the wildly popular Telegram messaging app and has had a pretty good year at the box office so far.

On January 1, Toncoin was the 15th largest coin with a price of $2.33 and an overall value of $8 billion. Fast forward to now, and it’s now in ninth place — surpassing the likes of Cardano and Avalanche after its market cap doubled to $17 billion in just seven months.

TON is now very close to overtaking memecoin loyalist Dogecoin for eighth place, which would be another milestone in its seemingly unstoppable rise. So what’s behind this coin’s massive success and is it ready to continue?

Source: TradingView TON story so far

Telegram made a big splash in 2017 when it began working on building its own Layer 1 chain, selling what were then known as “Gram tokens” to fund development. But this later led to a clash with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The threat of legal action led Telegram to abandon the project in mid-2020, with a decentralized team of developers vowing to pick up where the social network left off. Since then, it’s fair to say Open Network has gone from strength to strength.

In a significant development, TON’s self-custody wallet was integrated directly into the hugely popular app last September, allowing cryptocurrency payments to be made directly to businesses that offer their services through the platform.

All of this coincides with Telegram’s launch of Mini Apps, which the tech giant says will allow entrepreneurs to effortlessly tweak their websites. From fast food to hotel bookings, transactions can happen seamlessly.

This has made Telegram look like a Western answer to China’s WeChat, which has increasingly moved beyond messaging into a “super app” that offers everything users need in one place.

Source: Hamster Kombat Insatiable demand… and hamsters

Telegram founder Pavel Durov says the app now has 950 million monthly active users, an increase of 50 million from a quarter ago. His company is now aiming to reach one billion, amid rumours that it could consider an initial public offering. Reflecting on the progress made, he wrote on his official channel:

2024 will go down in history as the year when hundreds of millions of people will be introduced to blockchain. We are proud that Telegram is at the center of this social transformation. To keep the flame burning, this month we will introduce a mini app store and in-app browser with support for Web3 pages.

This is a bullish development, especially when you consider Telegram’s massive user base. In other words, it’s the only app that has the potential to expose a large number of Web2 users to cryptocurrencies, blockchains, and the entire Web3 ecosystem. Elon Musk’s enthusiasm for X to fill that void appears to be waning.

What’s quite exciting is how apps can suddenly go mega-viral on Telegram, a classic example being the clicker game Hamster Kombat. Durov says the app has received over 250 million signups so far and has fully embraced crypto.

Soon, Hamster’s team will mint its token in TON and introduce the benefits of blockchain to hundreds of millions of people. A new era is coming and we are witnessing its arrival in real time.

Pavel Durov

Throw in some notable integrations with major cryptocurrency companies (USDT payments can now be made via Telegram, OKX launched a game where players can predict Bitcoin’s price movements) and we can say that this app looks truly unstoppable.

There’s just one problem: concerns are growing that Telegram is becoming the new “dark web,” with everything from guns to cocaine shamelessly sold on channels subscribed by tens of thousands of people.

This, combined with widespread support for crypto payments, could trigger a major regulatory crackdown globally.