Here’s What’s Behind Toncoin’s (TON) 45% Rally in August, According to Analytics Firm Messari

Crypto analytics firm Messari says multiple factors contributed to Toncoin’s (TON) unexpected 45% price surge in August.

Toncoin is the native token for a layer-1 blockchain initially developed by the encrypted messaging platform Telegram.

The 12th-ranked crypto asset by market cap jumped from trading around $1.20 at the beginning of August to $1.75 by the end of the month, an increase of more than 45%. The token is trading at $1.83 at time of writing.

Messari notes TON’s price pump materialized amid this summer’s wave of Telegram bot apps like Unibot (UNIBOT).

“While these apps only use Telegram as an interface to Ethereum protocols and do not directly use the TON chain, they have popularized a new messaging app-based UX that simplifies blockchain interactions for users.”

Messari also notes that TON’s ecosystem is growing. The project currently clocks $9.62 million in total value locked (TVL), according to the decentralized finance tracker DeFi Llama.

TVL refers to the amount of capital deposited within a protocol’s smart contracts and is often used to gauge the health of a crypto ecosystem.

Telegram parted ways with the project in 2020 following a legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The Open Network, an open-source community of developers, took over management of the technology that year.

TON can also be sent by Telegram’s 700 million users within the platform without entering long wallet addresses.

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