5 min readTON, which until recently was a lesser-known altcoin, has rallied into the top 10 rankings, rising above well-known coins such as Cardano and Avalanche.
The Toncoin price surged 20% on Tuesday, reaching an ATH above $7 and lifting the market capitalization to $23.7 billion, making it the 9th largest cryptocurrency by market cap. As a result, Toncoin flipped Cardano, which boasts a market cap of $21.24 billion.
- TON flips ADA to become the 9th largest cryptocurrency.
- TON rallied 20% to an ATH above $7 on Tuesday.
- Toncoin is used to incentivize palm-scanning proof of personhood.
- Telegram to implement Toncoin payments.
What’s been driving TON higher?
Toncoin’s rise was helped by news that Telegram, the cloud-based, cross-platform messenger, is embracing crypto technology and the TON blockchain.
TON society developers have put aside $5 million in Toncoin in the latest proof of personhood push. The Toncoin will incentivize users to enroll in a palm-scanning proof of personhood program. Biometric developer HumanCode AI and The Open Network (TON) Society, the community developers building the TON ecosystem, announced the program during Monday’s Hong Kong Web3 Festival.
Similar to WorldCoin’s eye scan, the project aims to enable digital identity verification for Telegram users over the coming five years. This form of identification promises to be reliable while maintaining users’ privacy and combating bots via a blockchain-enabled identification and authentication system.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov also hinted at a possible IPO for the messenger firm and emphasized the company’s path to profitability. Telegram has over 900 million active users monthly, and its valuation exceeds $30 billion.
Bold statements from Durov, the mastermind behind Telegram, have helped Toncoin surge. Durvov plans to integrate Toncoin into the messaging platform, supporting TON as a method of payment and a way of rewarding advertising efforts. These plans have spurred excitement and enthusiasm towards these plans, and increased token acquisition has propelled Toncoin by 135% across the past month.
But that’s not all…
On March 20, TON unveiled a $115 million community incentive scheme to increase user uptake. This included allocating $38 million for token mining and user incentives, $22 million for airdrops, $15 million for The League developer ecosystem, and $40 million for liquidity pool enhancements.
Can TON rise further?
The increased interest in Toncoin helped it outperform Cardano. This month, TON has rallied an impressive 135%, ADA has fallen 15%, and Bitcoin has remained flat. Meanwhile, looking at the year-to-date chart, TON has risen by 183% compared to Cardano, which has fallen by 1%.
Drawing comparisons with Dogecoin, TON is still a clear outperformer. Doge has risen 108% TYD against TON’s 177%.
While Dogecoin’s price is driven by pure price speculation, Toncoin has a utility within the Telegram messenger app, which could result in the coin’s price rising as user uptake on the app increases.
While many bullish factors support higher prices, ordinary investors could grow concerned about Toncoin’s token distribution. According to CoinCarp data, the top 100 richest holders own 93% of the Toncoin supply, while the top 10 holders own nearly 60% of the cryptocurrency.
Sources
https://coinranking.com/coins/altcoin
https://cryptonews.com/news/telegram-linked-toncoin-ton-hits-ath-amid-ipo-speculations.htm
https://cointelegraph.com/news/ton-blockchain-launches-115-million-community-incentive-program
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