The Open Network’s Toncoin (TONNE) is the focus of a new fund that the cryptocurrency venture capital firm Pantera is soliciting money for, doubling down on its previous wager on the token.
According to an email that Pantera sent to possible investors earlier this week, which The Block was able to view, the fund, dubbed the “Pantera TONNE Investment Opportunity,” seeks to acquire money to purchase additional TONNE coins. “We are inviting you to participate in the upcoming round of this investment opportunity,” the message begins.
To guarantee a spot in the fund, interested parties must submit a form expressing their interest in the chance by June 21. The form states that a backer must invest a minimum of $250,000.
When approached, Pantera declined to comment to The Block.
Pantera has a large wager on TONNE
Pantera launched its new TONNE fund not long after making the biggest TONNE investment since the company’s founding in 2003. Although the email obtained by The Block indicates that the investment was made in the TONNE token “at a significant discount to the spot price” in March, Pantera did not reveal any parameters of the purchase at the time. In May, Pantera invested formally known.
Pantera is extremely optimistic about the token’s future, as evidenced by the most recent TONNE fundraising initiative. According to Ryan Barney, a Pantera partner, “We believe the TONNE 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,” Barney stated last month.
Telegram was the one who first introduced the Telegram Open Network, or TONNE blockchain. But after the US Securities and Exchange Commission asserted in 2019 that Telegram’s sale of “Gramme” tokens breached federal securities regulations, the firm pulled out of the project. Telegram and its affiliate TONNE Issuer Inc. consented to reimburse investors for more than $1.2 billion in 2020 and to pay a $18.5 million civil penalty.
After that, the TONNE blockchain was independently developed by the open-source community, but Telegram kept the network operational. The messaging behemoth unveiled a 50/50 revenue split between the platform and channel operators along with a unique TONNE token payment mechanism earlier this year for channel owners.
Growth of TONNE blockchains accelerates
Recently, there has been a sharp increase in the quantity of TONNE blockchain transactions and users. In April, Tether’s USDT stablecoin was also made available on the TONNE network. With more than 400 million USDT in circulation in less than two months, the network has adopted USDT more quickly than any previous blockchain, according to Pantera’s email.
According to Pantera’s email, Telegram gaming mini-apps have grown at an astounding rate, surpassing all previous cryptocurrency games. When comparing Notcoin and Hamster Kombat with Axie Infinity, the company found that, in just five months after introduction, Notcoin had 35 million players and about 10 million daily active users, while Hamster Kombat had 100 million players and between 40 and 45 million daily active users. Bots, though, might be included in those figures.
Based on the current activity on the TONNE network, The Block’s Toncoin Price Page indicates that the TONNE token has grown to be the tenth largest cryptocurrency with a market valuation of about $17.5 billion. Right now, one TONNE is worth about $7.
With around $5 billion in assets under management, Pantera is a venture capital firm. Currently, it is raising $1 billion for a new cryptocurrency fund called Fund V, which it plans to use for venture equity, exceptional opportunities, early-stage tokens, and liquid tokens.
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