Telegram launched as a easy messaging app in 2013. Right this moment, it’s a serious participant within the cryptocurrency area, integrating the TON blockchain.
When brothers Nikolai and Pavel Durov based Telegram, the startup rapidly gained recognition for its emphasis on privateness and pace.
Within the subsequent years, Telegram underwent a change: altering from a communication software to a key platform for crypto customers and purposes.
On this article, we are going to retrace Telegram’s journey, from its preliminary foray into blockchain expertise with the TON Blockchain to its authorized battles with the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee and its present influential position within the crypto neighborhood.
Telegram origins and shift to crypto
As said earlier, Telegram began as a messaging app — touted for its sturdy security measures and user-friendly interface. It utilized encrypted chats and enormous group chats.
Telegram’s introduction of bots in 2015 marked a major milestone. This allowed the app’s customers to automate duties, handle teams, and even facilitate complicated interactions.
Because the platform grew, Telegram launched voice calls in 2017 and video calls in 2020, additional enhancing its communication capabilities.
Its evolution continued with the launch of channels, which supplied a brand new manner for customers to broadcast messages to massive audiences. This software was additional enhanced with tales for channels, a function permitting customers to share fleeting content material with distinctive dual-camera performance and detailed privateness settings.
It additionally launched a clear and truthful giveaway system inside channels, enabling customers to win real-world prizes.
Nonetheless, the Durov brothers had a grander imaginative and prescient for Telegram past messaging. They sought to create a decentralized platform that might change the way in which individuals dealt with digital transactions and communications.
This imaginative and prescient led to the creation of the Telegram Open Community blockchain. The purpose was to construct a high-performance blockchain able to processing thousands and thousands of transactions per second whereas integrating seamlessly with Telegram’s messaging platform.
The venture promised to introduce new options similar to decentralized purposes, sensible contracts, and a local cryptocurrency, Gram.
Creating the TON blockchain
The TON Blockchain started in earnest when Pavel Durov launched a whitepaper in 2018 outlining its technological developments and potential.
Initially envisioned to combine cryptocurrency and blockchain options into the Telegram ecosystem, TON’s creators designed it with scalability in thoughts. It was meant to deal with thousands and thousands of transactions per second, a feat it aimed to attain by a novel multi-blockchain structure and sharding mechanism.
The mechanism splits the blockchain right into a grasp chain, which manages the general community, and a number of work chains, every able to working independently.
To actualize this dream, Telegram sought to lift funds by an preliminary coin providing. Earlier than that, the corporate raised about $1.7 billion from 175 buyers in a non-public sale of its native Gram token.
Nonetheless, the success was short-lived. Quickly after the presale, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission forged its regulatory eyes on the platform.
Authorized battle with the SEC
In October 2019, the SEC filed a complaint towards Telegram, alleging that the corporate had carried out an unregistered securities providing by promoting Gram tokens. The fee argued that these tokens had been securities and may have been registered below U.S. securities legal guidelines.
The authorized battle culminated in a landmark choice in March 2020 when a U.S. federal courtroom dominated in favor of the SEC, halting the distribution of Gram tokens.
Consequently, Telegram postponed and ultimately deserted the venture in Could 2020. It additionally agreed to return the cash raised within the pre-ICO occasion to buyers and pay an $18.5 million civil penalty.
Telegram felt the affect of this choice, which additionally despatched shockwaves by the broader crypto business, highlighting the regulatory challenges blockchain tasks face.
As soon as Telegram stepped again, a bunch of impartial builders picked up the slack and continued to construct TON, now renamed The Open Community. This ensured the venture’s survival.
Its growth is now supported and guided by a non-profit group, the TON Basis, primarily based in Zug, Switzerland. Steve Yun serves because the president of the TON Basis, whereas Andrew Rogozov, former CEO of Russian social media website VK, is a founding member.
All through 2021 and 2022, the TON neighborhood centered on bettering the community’s structure, implementing dynamic sharding, and refining its proof-of-stake consensus mechanism.
Telegram’s continued assist and integration
Whereas not the architect of the event of TON, Telegram has continued to assist the platform. As an illustration, in September 2023, the messaging app, with greater than 800 million customers on the time, built-in the TON Area self-custodial pockets.
This integration was adopted by an introduction to an advert revenue-sharing system this previous March, the place funds are made solely in Toncoin (TON), the successor of Gram, thereby fostering additional engagement with the TON ecosystem.
In September 2023, Telegram formally endorsed TON, declaring the blockchain and its related token because the app’s “official web3 infrastructure.” This transfer has sparked investor curiosity and led to substantial good points for the TON token.
Consequently, the entire worth locked on TON surpassed $300 million on Could 27, 2024, marking a major milestone fueled by a neighborhood rewards program from the TON Basis.
Telegram’s present position in crypto
Seemingly placing its disappointment at not having the ability to construct the TON community by itself, Telegram has continued to play a pivotal position within the crypto area. The messaging app has change into a central hub for the crypto neighborhood, offering a platform for dialogue, collaboration, and knowledge sharing.
Telegram teams and channels are extensively used for bulletins, buying and selling alerts, and neighborhood constructing throughout the crypto ecosystem.
Moreover, the platform’s affect within the crypto area has been additional solidified by its current introduction of latest options that cater to crypto customers, similar to a digital market throughout the app and integrations with in style wallets like Belief Pockets.
Telegram’s collaboration with Belief Pockets will allow the crypto pockets to leverage the messaging app’s huge consumer base, specializing in gaming finance and dapps. It should additionally reportedly permit Belief Pockets’s 100 million customers to ship and obtain TON tokens.
Moreover, TON introduced it might quickly support Tether (USDT) tokens on its blockchain, permitting Telegram customers to ship the stablecoin throughout the app.
Information of that specific growth boosted TON’s worth, pushing it as much as $7.63 on April 11 from roughly $2.21 a yr in the past, in accordance with CoinGecko knowledge.
On the time of this writing, a TON token was going for $5.46, giving the cryptocurrency an general worth of $13.7 billion and making it the tenth-biggest digital asset by market cap, simply behind Dogecoin (DOGE).
Rise of mini-apps and the tap-to-play ecosystem
On July 31, Telegram introduced it was rolling out a brand new in-app browser, increasing its blockchain capabilities and consumer expertise. The announcement adopted the introduction of a mini app retailer earlier within the month by CEO Pavel Durov.
This new browser will allow Telegram’s huge consumer base to entry TON websites, a platform for decentralized web sites. The Telegram co-founder highlighted that the browser gives options akin to conventional net browsers and integrates net looking with messaging.
Moreover, you’ll be able to entry the Telegram mini app retailer by the app’s search function. In line with the announcement, 500 million of Telegram’s 950 million customers work together with mini-apps month-to-month, they usually can now discover all their mini-apps in a single consolidated location.
The ecosystem additionally introduces “Stars,” a brand new in-app cost unit launched on June 7. Customers can ship Stars to buddies and use them for transactions inside mini-apps, which may later be exchanged for Toncoin.
Telegram’s mini-apps have been fairly profitable. Well-liked purposes like Notcoin (NOT) and Hamster Kombat entice thousands and thousands of customers worldwide. In Notcoin, customers earn tokens by finishing social challenges. The sport has amassed greater than 35 million customers in 5 months and had a $1.15 billion market cap on the time of writing.
Hamster Kombat, a crypto trade administration simulation recreation, isn’t any slouch both. It has change into one of many fastest-growing web3 purposes, reportedly boasting over 300 million customers since its launch in March 2024.
The venture plans to launch a major airdrop for its native token, HMSTR, on the TON community, an train it described because the “largest airdrop within the historical past of crypto.”
As reported by crypto.information, Hamster Kombat plans to distribute at the very least 60% of the HMSTR provide to gamers of the sport on Telegram.
One other noteworthy mini-app, Catizen, launched alongside Hamster Kombat, has attracted over 27 million energetic customers. This success led to investment within the app’s writer, Pluto Studio, from HashKey Capital, a Hong Kong-based crypto enterprise agency.
Nonetheless, regardless of the thrill, some delays have brought about frustration amongst customers. The extremely anticipated token airdrops for HMSTR and Catizen’s CATI tokens had been anticipated to launch on the TON blockchain in July however have each been postponed.
Catizen cited planning challenges, together with securing exchanges, making certain liquidity, and compliance points, as causes for the delay. Equally, Hamster Kombat defined that the complexity of the technical process has pushed again its token launch.
Wanting forward
Telegram’s foray into the crypto and digital property market is a testomony to its imaginative and prescient of turning into a complete digital ecosystem. With its method to monetization and the success of its mini-apps, the messaging platform is positioning itself to proceed its progress within the crypto area.
It additionally looks as if Telegram is planning an preliminary public providing. In his first interview since 2017, Pavel Durov revealed plans for the messaging app’s monetary future, together with a possible IPO.
Moreover, Durov told the Monetary Occasions on March 11 that Telegram goals to change into worthwhile by 2025, if not sooner.
Since 2021, Telegram has raised $2 billion by bond points, with bondholders reportedly set to obtain a 10-20% low cost on the IPO if it happens earlier than March 2026.
Telegram’s journey from a messaging app to a major participant within the crypto area is a testomony to its potential to adapt and innovate. Regardless of dealing with regulatory challenges and setbacks, it has remained an important platform for the crypto neighborhood.
