- Toncoin has dropped almost 15% in the past seven days.
- Crypto VCs aren’t panicking.
- “The fundamental case for TON remains compelling,” one investor told DL News.
Toncoin may be down, but some crypto venture capitalists say they aren’t bailing on the tenth largest cryptocurrency in the world.
After French authorities recently arrested Pavel Durov, the CEO of popular messaging app Telegram, the price of Toncoin, which has historical ties to the app, tanked.
Over the past seven days, the price of one token has dropped almost 15% to now trade around $5.58.
Still, Alex Felix, managing partner at CoinFund, doesn’t regret his venture firm’s investment in TON, the ticker for Toncoin.
“The fundamental case for TON remains compelling,” he told DL News.
All press, good press
Matthew Graham, founder and CEO of Ryze Labs, another VC that invested in Toncoin, was similarly hopeful.
“Although we agree the news of Pavel’s arrest is quite significant, so is the fact that, this week, TON accounts crossed the 50 million mark for the first time,” he told DL News, in reference to the number of individual addresses on the TON blockchain.
And Joven Wu, head of business development at Ryze Labs, said in a recent blog post that Durov’s arrest may have a silver lining for the cryptocurrency.
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“The controversy has significantly raised TON’s profile, potentially attracting more users and developers to the ecosystem,” he wrote.
TON is not Telegram
The three crypto VCs to whom DL News spoke cautioned that Telegram, the app, should not be conflated with Toncoin, a cryptocurrency that became nominally separate from Telegram after a settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in 2020.
“It’s important to note that the concerns appear to be more about regional compliance issues, such as content moderation, affecting traditional technology companies rather than the crypto platform itself,” Felix said, in reference to Durov’s arrest.
And Shauli Rejwan, managing partner at Masterkey VC and early investor in Toncoin, believes that, despite the news of Durov’s arrest, the token may one day be able to more fully distance itself from its association with Telegram.
“History has shown that strong projects can outgrow their initial associations, and TON, with its current trajectory, is well-positioned to do so,” he told DL News.
A French prosecutor said on Wednesday that Durov is under formal investigation and will not be allowed to leave the country, according to the BBC. He will have to report to the police twice a week and his bail is set to $5.5 million.
Crypto market movers
- Bitcoin is up 0.8% in the last 24 hours, trading at $59,676.
- Ethereum is also up 3.8%, now at $2,553.
What we are reading
Ben Weiss is a Dubai Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at bweiss@dlnews.com.