TON Price Pumps After Telegram Says It Will Share Ad Revenue via Crypto

Telegram, the privacy-focused online messaging platform, announced Wednesday that it will begin splitting ad revenue with creators with payouts exclusively in Toncoin (TON).

Within moments, the price of TON—a project that was initially developed within Telegram before being continued independently—spiked a whopping 31% to a high not seen in over two years. 

Beginning Friday, Telegram channel owners—individuals or organizations that post messages to dedicated one-way feeds that any subscriber can view for free—will start receiving 50% of any revenue generated from ads displayed by Telegram in their channels.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced the news via his own Telegram channel Wednesday morning. All such earnings will be solely distributed via The Open Network, or TON.

“This will create a virtuous circle, in which content creators will be able to either cash out their Toncoins—or reinvest them in promoting and upgrading their channels,” the Telegram founder said. 

Within an hour of the announcement, TON spiked some 31.48% to $2.84, a price not seen since February 2022, according to CoinGecko. At that high, the token’s market capitalization breached $9.8 billion. TON has since dipped to $2.41 at writing, still up nearly 12% on the day.

What is Toncoin, the Native Currency of The Open Network?

In 2018, the messaging platform Telegram released a white paper for a layer-1 blockchain it called the Telegram Open Network.  The project’s currency, called ‘Gram’, was designed to pay transaction fees, settle payments and validate transactions on the network.  Telegram Gets a Crypto Wallet—3 Years After SEC Pumped the Brakes The launch hit the headlines. It broke records in 2018 after raising an eye-watering $1.7 billion in a token sale. It was the second largest ICO in history, behind EOS, wh...

Durov claimed that Telegram channels collectively receive one trillion views monthly. Decrypt reached out to the platform for comment regarding the amount of revenue ads on Telegram channels have previously generated, but did not immediately receive a response.

TON originally stood for Telegram Open Network, and the network’s Gram cryptocurrency was planned to be a key part of the messaging app’s future. However, regulatory scrutiny from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) forced Telegram to reconsider.

‘We're Promising Nothing’: Telegram Game Notcoin Has 25 Million Players and a Soon-to-be-Real Token

Notcoin popped onto crypto gamers’ radar at the start of the year, as millions of Telegram players flocked to the chat app’s curious coin-tapping distraction—and were apparently mining billions of Notcoin in the process. But there was a curious catch: the coins weren’t real, at least not in the on-chain cryptocurrency sort of way. Now there are more than 25 million “Notcoiners” furiously tapping that same gleaming coin, competing in squads, and absorbing messages that are somewhat nihilistic but...

The company withdrew from the project in 2020 and refunded investors from the earlier token sale. Community developers ultimately continued the open-source project, which has gone on to become a blockchain for projects like Notcoin, an engagement-based game and meme coin.

TON’s rollercoaster of a morning came amidst an unusually volatile period for the crypto market. Bitcoin surged over 11% in a matter of hours Wednesday morning, to north of $63,000 just after 12pm EST, according to CoinGecko. It has since tapered off to $61,330 at writing. In the same brief window, Ethereum nearly touched $3,500 for the first time since the start of 2022.

Edited by Andrew Hayward