Since 2013, the Durov brothers have demonstrated their foresight and boldness by creating Telegram (TG), a messaging app that quickly amassed a large global user base. Five years later, in 2018, Pavel Durov further launched a blockchain project—The Open Network (TON)—and successfully raised an astounding $1.7 billion through an ICO, reflecting the market’s trust and anticipation for TON technology.
However, the good times didn’t last long. In 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) intervened, forcing TG to relinquish direct control over TON. Yet, this did not halt the progress of TON. That same year, the community-led Ton Foundation took over the development of TON, ensuring the project’s continued advancement. Soon after, in September 2021, the TON mainnet went live, officially entering the operational phase and issuing its own cryptocurrency.
Over the following year, Ton Foundation worked together with miners, accumulating over 80% of the TON tokens, laying a solid foundation for the project’s long-term development. By September 2023, TG announced a deep partnership with TON, emulating the successful WeChat mini-program model by integrating the TON ecosystem into its platform, signaling the start of a new ecological layout.
The capital markets quickly followed with recognition, and in February 2024, the renowned venture capital firm Pantera Capital invested $300 million into TON, further boosting TON’s market influence. Shortly after, in April, Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, announced the deployment of USDT on the TON network. This move greatly enhanced the usability and liquidity of the TON network, allowing users to easily transfer funds via TG.
As the TON ecosystem continued to thrive, various innovative applications such as Notcoin, Hamster, and Catizen began to gain massive popularity on the TG platform, attracting large user participation. This marked the success of the partnership between TON and TG, and indicated that the ecosystem they were co-creating was steadily maturing, bringing users an unprecedented experience.