Crypto venture capital firm Pantera is raising money for a new fund to invest specifically in The Open Network’s Toncoin (TON), doubling down on its prior bet on the token.
Dubbed the “Pantera TON Investment Opportunity,” the fund aims to raise capital to buy more TON tokens, according to an email seen by The Block that Pantera sent to potential investors earlier this week. “We are inviting you to participate in the upcoming round of this investment opportunity,” the email reads.
Interested parties have been requested to indicate their interest in the opportunity through a form by June 21 to secure an allocation in the fund. The form notes that the minimum investment per backer is $250,000.
Pantera declined to comment to The Block when contacted.
Pantera is betting big on TON
Pantera’s new TON fund comes shortly after the firm made its largest-ever investment in TON since its founding in 2003. At the time, Pantera did not disclose any deal terms, but the email seen by The Block notes that the investment was made in the TON token “at a significant discount to the spot price” in March. Pantera officially announced the investment in May.
With the latest TON fund effort, Pantera appears to be highly bullish about the token’s potential. “We believe the TON network is still in its early stages, and we are excited to witness the adoption of its ecosystem and new features by the Telegram user base,” Ryan Barney, a Pantera partner, said last month.
The TON blockchain, formerly known as the Telegram Open Network, was initially launched by Telegram. However, the company withdrew from the project after the United States Securities and Exchange Commission claimed in 2019 that Telegram’s sale of tokens called “Grams” violated federal securities laws. In 2020, Telegram and its subsidiary TON Issuer Inc. agreed to return over $1.2 billion to investors and pay an $18.5 million civil penalty.
The open-source community then continued to develop the TON blockchain independently, but Telegram has continued to support the network. Earlier this year, the messaging giant introduced an ad revenue-sharing system for channel owners that will pay out exclusively in the TON token and feature a 50/50 revenue split between the platform and channel operators.
TON blockchain growth surges
The number of TON blockchain users and transactions has been growing rapidly lately. Tether’s USDT stablecoin also launched on the TON network in April. USDT’s adoption on the network has been faster than any prior blockchain, with over 400 million USDT in circulation in under two months, Pantera said in the email.
Telegram gaming mini-apps have also experienced remarkable growth, outpacing all previous crypto games, Pantera said in the email. The firm compared Notcoin and Hamster Kombat with Axie Infinity and said that Notcoin reached 35 million players and around 10 million daily active users within five months of its launch, while Hamster Kombat has reached 100 million players and between 40 and 45 million daily active users. However, those numbers could include bots.
Overall, given the recent traction on the TON network, the TON token has grown to become the tenth largest cryptocurrency, with a market cap of over $17.5 billion, according to The Block’s Toncoin Price Page. One TON is currently trading at around $7.
As for Pantera, the venture capital firm with nearly $5 billion in assets under management, is currently also raising a $1 billion new crypto Fund V to invest in venture equity, early-stage tokens, special opportunities and liquid tokens.
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