The TON Foundation, an organization focused on building the Telegram-initiated blockchain project, The Open Network, has successfully launched a new ecosystem fund, “TONcoin Fund,” to support its blockchain-based projects.
Their official launching came the same day some countries from Western Africa, including Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Republic of Congo, announced ready plans to adopt the TON blockchain.
In an April 11 announcement, the Foundation confirmed the official launch of a new ecosystem fund, “The TONcoin Fund,” to support its blockchain-based projects such as DEX and NFTs. The TONcoin Fund is an initial collective commitment of up $250 million from notable firms within the budding space.
The fund’s official incubation partners included notable firms like Huobi Incubator, KuCoin Ventures, MEXC Pioneer Fund, 3Commas Capital, Orbs, TON Miners, and Kilo Fund. The fund now intends to distribute these funds through incubation, investment, grants, hackathons, and education programs.
While commenting on the new crypto development, Benjamin Rameau, the managing partner at TONcoin Fund, said that the fund will work closely with the TON Foundation to help the TON blockchain satisfactorily reach its full potential.
Rameau further maintained that the new ecosystem fund would focus explicitly on Web3-related developments. He confirmed that TON is already incubating a decentralized exchange and non-fungible tokens (NFT) project:
“We are also eying opportunities with wallets, NFT marketplaces, and decentralized finance.”
“TON may become the first blockchain network accessible to millions of users thanks to the Telegram integration efforts by the community via in-app bots as well as native interface proposals.”
Pavel Durov Endorses TON Foundation
The top official cited TON’s public endorsement from Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov in December 2021, which subsequently followed an announcement of the TON payment partnership with Telegram Messenger.
Rameau, the founder of Jenny Metaverse and managing partner at the cryptocurrency trading platform 3Commas Capital, started getting attracted to the TON blockchain and related applications while working on Gamee, a Telegram bot-enabled mobile gaming platform in 2021.
At the time, the top executive realized that TON blockchain would create perfect solutions that many people want to utilize and enable the mass adoption of the rapidly growing technology.
In that context, Rameau said in a short interview that TON-enable solutions could include payment, play-to-earn games, profile pictures on chats directly linked to crypto wallets, and subscriptions to media, stating:
“TON will not just be the blockchain that people use on Telegram — it will define people’s online identity and will act as a bridge between all their Web3 and Web2 activities.”
The latest bullish announcement came on the same day that Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Republic of Congo revealed ready plans to adopt the Layer-1 proof-of-stake blockchain, TON, as the crypto and blockchain that will drive the future progress of the national economy.
The DRC hinted that it wanted to start exploring a new national stablecoin built on top of the The Open Network blockchain. The joint announcement noted:
“TON has been engaging with all three countries independently for some time and has taken the lead to deliver cryptocurrency and blockchain solutions for each nation. “
“These countries will each undertake a phased transition to adopting cryptocurrency as a central pillar of their economic structures.”
Giant social media platform “Telegram” terminated its direct involvement with TON in May 2021 after an extensive legal battle with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over its $1.7 billion coin offering in 2018.
But, the open-source project has since supported many other projects such as FreeTON, NewTON, and TON.
