• Pantera launches a fund to invest heavily in TON, reflecting strong confidence in the token’s future.
• Due to Telegram’s support and quick USDT integration, the user base and adoption of the TON blockchain have increased significantly.

Pantera, a cryptocurrency venture capital firm, is creating waves once more by raising funding, especially to invest in Toncoin (TON) from The Open Network.

Known as the “Pantera TON Investment Opportunity,” the fund seeks to draw in large sums of money to augment Pantera’s already sizeable TON investment. The Block obtained an email from Pantera inviting possible investors to take part in this next round.

Potential investors are asked to express their interest by June 21 with a minimum investment of $250,000. When The Block contacted Pantera, they declined to discuss the matter further.

Previous Major Investment in TON 

Pantera made the largest-ever investment in TON in March at a substantial discount to the spot price, which was followed by this new fund. Pantera made the official announcement of this investment in May, although it withheld the particulars. This action emphasizes Pantera’s optimistic view on the potential of the coin.

Pantera partner Ryan Barney said, “We think the TON network is still in its infancy, and we are eager to see how the Telegram user base will embrace its ecosystem and new features.”

The project, which Telegram first introduced as the Telegram Open Network, ran into legal problems in 2019 when the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said Telegram’s selling of “Grams” tokens was against federal securities regulations.

As such, in 2020, Telegram and its subsidiary, TON Issuer Inc., consented to pay a $18.5 million civil penalty and repay approximately $1.2 billion to investors. With continuous help from Telegram, the open-source community has subsequently carried on developing the TON blockchain on its own.

Both transactions and users of the TON blockchain have increased quickly recently. The USDT stablecoin from Tether debuted on the TON network in April and gained more traction than any other blockchain. Two months later, more than 400 million USDT tokens are in use.

Surge in Telegram-Based Gaming

Telegram gaming mini-apps have also been increasingly popular. Games with millions of players and daily active users include Notcoin and Hamster Kombat, according to Pantera’s email.

Within five months, Notcoin had 35 million players and about 10 million daily active users, but Hamster Kombat had 100 million players and 40 to 45 million daily active users. Still, these numbers might include bot activity.

Meanwhile, with a market cap of more than $17.5 billion, Toncoin has risen to become the tenth biggest crypto thanks to its recent popularity on the TON platform. CoinMarketCap data show that the price of TON is about $7.16 right now, slightly up 0.77% in the last day but down 5.50% in the previous week.

Apart from concentrating on TON, Pantera Capital, which oversees assets of about $5 billion, is launching a $1 billion Fund V to invest in venture capital, early-stage tokens, exceptional opportunities, and liquid tokens.

Previously, a prior CNF report highlighted Alena Shmalko from TON, who disclosed that the ecosystem aims to reach 500 million users within the next four years.