- Toncoin has fallen by almost 15% in the last seven days.
- Crypto VCs are not panicking.
- “The fundamental arguments for TON remain compelling,” one investor told DL News.
Toncoin may be down, but some cryptocurrency venture capitalists say they won't give up on the world's 10th largest cryptocurrency.
After French authorities recently arrested Pavel Durov, the CEO of popular messaging app Telegram, the price of Toncoin, which is historically linked to the app, plummeted.
Over the past seven days, the price of one token has fallen by almost 15% and is now trading at around $5.58.
Still, Alex Felix, managing partner at CoinFund, has no regrets about his venture capital firm’s investment in TON, the ticker symbol for Toncoin.
“The fundamental arguments for TON remain convincing,” he said DL News.
Lots of press, good press
Matthew Graham, founder and CEO of Ryze Labs, another VC that invested in Toncoin, was similarly hopeful.
“While we agree that the news of Pavel's arrest is quite significant, so is the fact that the number of TON accounts exceeded 50 million for the first time this week,” he said. DL Newsin terms of the number of unique addresses in the TON blockchain.
And Joven Wu, head of business development at Ryze Labs, said in a recent blog post that Durov's arrest could have a silver lining for the cryptocurrency.
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“The controversy has significantly raised TON's profile and could attract more users and developers to the ecosystem,” he wrote.
TON is not Telegram
The three crypto VCs that DL News warned against confusing the Telegram app with Toncoin, a cryptocurrency that was nominally separated from Telegram following a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2020.
“It is 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, referring to Durov's arrest.
And Shauli Rejwan, managing partner at Masterkey VC and an early investor in Toncoin, believes that despite the news of Durov's arrest, the token may one day be able to distance itself more from its association with Telegram.
“History has shown that strong projects can grow beyond their initial associations, and TON is well positioned to do so with its current development,” he said DL News.
A French prosecutor said on Wednesday that Durov was under official investigation and was not allowed to leave the country, the BBC reported. He must report to police twice a week and his bail was set at $5.5 million.
Crypto market drivers
- Bitcoin is up 0.8% in the last 24 hours and is trading at $59,676.
- Ethereum also rose 3.8% and is now at $2,553.
What we read
Ben Weiss is Dubai correspondent for DL News. Do you have a tip? Send him an email to [email protected].
