TON Foundation Receives $1 Billion From Community to Rejuvenate Ecosystem

The TON Foundation has announced that it has raised more than a billion dollars from its community to finance advancements in its ecosystem. In a donation drive that began on April 7, the foundation received 176 donations, mainly in Toncoin (TON), the platform’s native token. 

Funds to be Used to Build Up the TON Ecosystem

Of the 176 donations, 18 were over 10 million TON each, and 37 were over 4 million TON each. According to a spokesperson for the foundation, 527 million TON was raised altogether, valued at slightly more than $1 billion.

In a press release, the foundation made it clear that the money raised from the donations will spruce up TON’s ecosystem as it seeks to position itself as the platform of choice for Web3 developers, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.

Discussing the foundation’s plans for the future, the TON spokesperson said:

“We think donors realize that TON’s success is helped by having a well-capitalized foundation to support the ecosystem.”

From the spokesperson’s sentiments, it is clear that the TON Foundation has no plans to incentivize community members who made the donations directly. Instead, it is felt that advancements to the TON ecosystem enabled by donations will provide the donors with more long-term benefits.

TON Foundation Rises After 2020 Litigation Disaster 

The Open Network was founded in 2018 by the privacy-focused messaging platform Telegram. But two years later, a lengthy and acrimonious court battle with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over a $1.7 billion initial coin offering (ICO) forced Telegram to sever ties with TON.

However, in the aftermath of the litigation battle, the Open Network community members formed the TON Foundation to keep the project alive. 

And things have been going well for this iteration of the Open Network. The foundation recently announced that it had received nearly $250 million in commitments to its ecosystem fund from significant players in the crypto space, including Huobi Incubator, KuCoin Ventures, 3Commas Capital, and MEXC Pioneer Fund, TON Miners, Kilo Fund, and the blockchain startup, Orbs.

The TON Foundation also revealed that it was in talks with several Central African countries to establish localized stablecoins on the TON blockchain. According to the foundation, the three countries spearheading the initiative were the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Republic of Congo, and Cameroon.

The three countries intend to adopt a blockchain that offers secure and easily accessible transactions with lower remittance fees.

Telegram Still Supporting TON

Part of TON’s allure is that it still enjoys the support of Telegram. In 2021, Telegram revealed that it was integrating the TON payment solution into its user interface, making it available to Telegram’s more than 500 million active monthly users. 

The TON Foundation will leverage the widespread use of the Telegram messaging platform, especially among financially underserved communities, to build strategic partnerships that it hopes will revolutionize the payments landscape in emerging crypto markets.