Crypto analytics firm Messari says multiple factors contributed to Toncoin’s () unexpected 45% price surge in August.
Toncoin is the native token for a layer-1 blockchain initially developed by the encrypted messaging platform Telegram.
The 12th-ranked crypto asset by market cap jumped from trading around $1.20 at the beginning of August to $1.75 by the end of the month, an increase of more than 45%. The token is trading at $1.83 at time of writing.
Messari TON’s price pump materialized amid this summer’s wave of Telegram bot apps like Unibot (
“While these apps only use Telegram as an interface to Ethereum protocols and do not directly use the TON chain, they have popularized a new messaging app-based UX that simplifies blockchain interactions for users.”
Messari also notes that TON’s ecosystem is growing. The project currently clocks $9.62 million in total value locked (TVL), according to the decentralized finance tracker DeFi Llama.
TVL refers to the amount of capital deposited within a protocol’s smart contracts and is often used to gauge the health of a crypto ecosystem.
Telegram parted ways with the project in 2020 following a legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The Open Network, an open-source community of developers, took over management of the technology that year.
TON can also be sent by Telegram’s 700 million users within the platform without entering long wallet addresses.