TON Blockchain Targets U.S. Growth Under Trump Administration

The TON blockchain is planning to move aggressively into the U.S., citing the election of crypto-friendly Donald Trump.

The Layer 1 blockchain is closely associated with the Telegram messaging service, where it allows the 950 million users to use services like making in-app payments and accessing games.

TON now stands for The Open Network, but it was first known as the Telegram Open Network and created by the messaging service to handle in-app payments via Gram tokens.

Telegram abandoned the project after losing a run-in with the Securities and Exchange Commission that forced it to return $1.2 billion to Gram token investors and pay an $18.5 million fine.

A second life

But, TON was essentially built and fully open-source, so its developers took over and began using it for projects. The biggest of these was the Switzerland-based TON Foundation, which kept its focus outside the U.S.

That’s changing now as TON believes the “U.S. will soon become a global crypto hub keenly focused on innovation,” newly appointed Ton Foundation President Manuel Stotz told Bloomberg.

Stotz is the founder of investment management company Kingsway Capital Partners. He was brought in by the TON Foundation to lead the U.S. expansion.

TON has had an exceptional year, growing from 100,000 to 1.2 million daily transactions while building an ecosystem of 1,400 Dapps, according to CoinMarketCap.

Annus Horribilis

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, the driving force behind the original TON digital ledger, is not having such a good year.

On Aug. 26 he was arrested at a French airport after being charged with “complicity” in drug trafficking and child pornography for failing to maintain a content moderation program on Telegram. He was also charged with facilitating cybercrime, organized fraud and money laundering, as well as offering tools for unregulated cryptocurrency.

That led to questions about the future of the TON project as it is so closely linked to Telegram. That said, Durov has no official role at the TON Foundation.

While the Toncoin dropped precipitously in the wake of Durov’s arrest, falling about 20% to $5.55, it is still fairly close to that price at $5.39, and had been up as high as $6.81 in December. But it had been hovering roughly between $1.50 and $2.50 for the two years leading up to February 2022, when its price spiked.