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TON Foundation Secures $400 Million Investment from Leading Venture Capital Firms

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  • TON Foundation secures $400M in Toncoin from major VCs to expand Telegram’s blockchain.
  • Telegram’s TON blockchain sees 41M active users and 121M unique Toncoin holders.
  • Venture capital interest grows as Telegram’s user base nears 1.5 billion by 2030.

The Open Network Foundation also known as TON Foundation obtained more than $400 million through funding from multiple high-profile venture capital companies. The funding directed to Toncoin as the native cryptocurrency of the TON blockchain demonstrates increased interest from investors in the Telegram ecosystem.

Sequoia, Ribbit Capital, Benchmark, Draper Associates and Kingsway compose the list of investors participating in this funding round. Other participants in the round include Vy Capital, Libertus Capital, CoinFund, SkyBridge, Hypersphere and Karatage.

Strategic Investments for Expanding the TON Ecosystem

The investments have been made in Toncoin rather than traditional cash or equity, reflecting a strong belief in the blockchain’s potential. The TON Foundation views these contributions as strategic partnerships that will help propel the TON ecosystem forward. Although specific details about the partnerships have not been disclosed, the foundation is optimistic about their future impact.

As Telegram grows, the TON blockchain supports a wide range of “Mini Apps” operating within the messaging platform. The creators of Telegram initially established TON but it now exists independently as a blockchain platform. The decentralization of Toncoin enhances its status as the main cryptocurrency for Telegram application functions in the broader ecosystems

Toncoin’s Growing Popularity and Telegram’s Expanding User Base

The TON blockchain has witnessed significant growth in the past year. The number of active users of the company increased from 4 million to 41 million monthly, while the Toncoin cryptocurrency has more than 121 million unique holders.  With millions of users, the TON Foundation plans to develop the blockchain further and attract 30% of the current Telegram active users within the next three years.

Benchmark partner Peter Fenton predicts Telegram will surpass 1.5 billion monthly active users by 2030, as it recently crossed the 1 billion threshold. This projected growth and rising Toncoin adoption patterns indicate that this blockchain system will establish dominance in the cryptocurrency industry. The integration of cryptocurrency on the Telegram platform offers an appealing solution which attracts developers and their users.

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The interest in Toncoin and the TON blockchain highlights a larger trend in the venture capital industry’s acceptance of blockchain and crypto projects. According to Simon Wu, a partner at Cathay Innovation, these projects are being recognized as viable solutions, especially in sectors such as asset management, transactions, and tokenization.

Blockchain project venture capital investment established a new high in February, surpassing $1.1 billion in crypto venture capital deals. The TON Foundation generated funding success as a part of an overall market shift demonstrating institutional investors’ growing interest in decentralized blockchain ecosystems like TON.

Bain Capital Ventures establishes a $560M fund exclusively for crypto initiatives

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Bain Capital Ventures or BCV have unveiled a $560 million fund that would be invested in crypto-focused businesses. BCV founded more than three decades ago is one of the world’s biggest startup-investment firms. For the last seven years, the venture firm has been providing capital to a number of crypto firms such as BlockFi Inc., Compound, and Digital Currency Group.

Stefan Cohen, the partner at Bain Capital Ventures, said that the firm has already invested $100 million in a number of undisclosed initiatives. However, the new BCV fund is the first of its kind focused entirely on this market.

When asked why now, Cohen said he strongly believes that the current market scenario is on the cusp of a multi-decade technology shift and which would be fulfilled with a dedicated fund structure. “That’s really what lead to the addition of Bain Capital Crypto,” he said.

Amidst the high uncertainty currently engulfing the broader crypto market, BCV remains confident. Alex Evans, a managing partner at Bain Capital Ventures reiterated,

We are fundamentally a long-term oriented, 10-year fund. We are taking a very long view. We are unfazed and in some ways uninterested in short-term market gyrations. We embrace the uncertainty of this market, we are long-term believers. When the certainty is there, it might be too late for this market.

Besides that, Bain has also set sight on number of ventures ranging from crypto startups to decentralized autonomous organizations [DAOs] in areas like Layer 1 blockchains -ones that compete with the likes of Ethereum and storage.

Bain Capital Ventures plans to invest in 30 companies

As per the press release, the venture firm is planning to deploy the capital in the next two to three years and invest in perhaps 30 companies, signaling its intention to be a much more active investor. In addition to that, Bain is also contemplating launching more such crypto-focused funds.

“Our view is that this is a 10-20-year opportunity, and we are building a platform here that we think can facilitate multiple funds over a period of time,” Cohen added.

Friend or Foe? Lead Investor Questions VC Funding For Web3 Projects

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Lauren Capelin who works as the lead investor at one of Australia’s biggest startup accelerators raised concerns over traditional venture capital funding for some Web3 startups, warning it might, in reality, hinder rather than help firms build the next-generation tech.

In an interview with a local news outlet, Capelin, a principal at Startmate told that while traditional venture capital funding might benefit some companies in the emerging industry, for others it was potentially “dangerous”. Reading the same, the community strategist noted,

“Part of me questions where and how Web3 projects require traditional investment. That’s not to say they don’t need it, but I wonder what the case is for it when community capitalization options are more available.”

As a matter of fact, several Web3 startups often receive funds through less traditional methods, such as selling their platform’s tokens [like shares with additional utility] to users through a token sale or establishing themselves as a decentralized autonomous organization [DAO].

This is what investor fear

DAOs secure funds by selling tokens to a community of people, who hold individual voting rights over the direction and purpose of the organization. Other DAOs often require members to prove their worth in terms of skills or services they can bring to the table. Many of these DAOs then vote on what proposals or projects are fund-worthy.

With respect to traditional venture capital investments, Capelin worries that Web3 projects would instead suffer as opposed to benefitting.

“I think the dangerous thing is venture capital funding these communities. But there’s definitely space for large-scale investors in capitalizing the core infrastructure of this space [through] more traditional sources of funding,” She added.

Capelin isn’t the first to raise the alarm bells, with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey recently accused leading Web3-friendly large-scale investors such as Andreessen Horowitz of looking to monopolize the space, warning “you don’t own Web3, the VCs and their [limited partners] do.”

Dorsey, one of Bitcoin’s biggest supporters has pointed out the fact that a small number of venture capital firms have managed to grab the majority of the web3 market and called out Andreessen Horowitz, a.k.a a16z, as being at the top of the list.

Binance Labs and Symbiosis Finance have entered into a strategic partnership

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Binance Labs, the company’s venture capital constituent and innovation incubator, has made a strategic investment in Symbiosis Finance, a multi-chain liquidity mechanism.

Symbiosis Finance is a decentralized multi-chain liquidity protocol that allows users to trade crypto tokens across several blockchains instantly. The protocol now supports four networks: BNB Chain (previously BSC), Ethereum, Polygon, and Avalanche, with more to be added shortly.

The fresh financing announced by Binance Labs will help Symbiosis Finance develop and strengthen the team ahead of the Mainnet launch, allowing the team to add support from more EVM and non-EVM networks and expand and integrate with other wallets, services, and dApps.

Binance labs aims to bring improved cross-chain liquidity

Symbiosis Finance intends to introduce the Symbiosis v.2 protocol, which will include sidechain implementation, cross-chain farming, smart order routing, and unified AMM pools.

“Symbiosis Finance is a vital contribution to the multi-chain future for crypto,” Bill Chin, Head of Binance Labs Fund, said. He also added that they are delighted to support Symbiosis Finance and work closely with the team to flesh out their shared goal.

“We invest in technologies that have the potential to give better user experience and impact the crypto industry, which is why we decided to fund Symbiosis,” said Jasmine Kong of Binance Labs.

“The concept is simple: we want to learn from the industry leaders and implement their best practices in order to produce something that people want.” But, more importantly, we must consider not just immediate demands but also a long-term plan and build solutions appropriately. Nick Avramov, co-Founder and CMO of Symbiosis Finance, stated, “We are pleased to enter into a strategic cooperation with Binance Labs and to become a part of its Ecosystem.”

In October, Symbiosis Finance secured seed funding with Blockchain.com Ventures heading the round. Symbiosis has raised $10 million in successive private and public rounds. Amber Group, Algorand, Wave Financial, BTC Inc, Injective Labs, Avalanche Asia Star Fund, Dragonfly, and Primitive Ventures are among the current supporters.

Collaborative partnerships like this will ensure that the technologies with the probable chances of providing a better user experience and improving the industry will never be left unnoticed.