TON, the native cryptocurrency for the TON blockchain, has soared by over 25% in a few hours following news of an integration within the social messaging platform Telegram. The integration entails that channel owners can now receive 50% of the total revenue generated from Telegram advertisements on their channels. These revenues will be allocated to beneficiaries via the TON blockchain.
Telegram Adopts TON for Ad Revenue Payment
According to a shared screenshot of a Telegram broadcast message from Telegram’s co-founder Pavel Durov, the Telegram Ad platform will be open to advertisers (channel owners) in approximately 100 countries starting in March.
The Telegram boss explained that beneficiaries can either cash out their TON holdings or reinvest them into promoting and upgrading their channels.
BREAKING: @telegram TO EXCLUSIVELY USE @ton_blockchain FOR AD REVENUE PAYMENTS AND WITHDRAWALS pic.twitter.com/mdCMM36DUD
— DEGEN NEWS ????️ (@DegenerateNews) February 28, 2024
Channels are a one-way feed where channel owners disseminate information to a large number of subscribers who can only read, react, and comment (if the comment feature is enabled). Most times, channels are used for broadcasting messages.
Adverts are generated and shared on large channels based on the topic of the public channels. Telegram reassured that users’ data will not be mined to generate ads.
The announcement was a driving force that took TON to a rapid 25% increase in the last 24 hours. After jumping to as high as $2.85, the cryptocurrency saw a slight correction to a current trading price of $2.73.
Not the First Time
This is not the first time Telegram will be integrating the TON blockchain into its services. In October 2022, an exchange platform called Fragment was launched, enabling the buying and selling of Telegram usernames. TON served as the native currency to facilitate these trades.
In September 2023, Telegram launched a self-custodial wallet called TON Space. Built on the TON blockchain, the wallet enables the trading of BTC, TON, and USDT. The announcement was made by Telegram and TON Foundation at a crypto conference in Singapore.
