Telegram raises funds, and TON rises

Today, the Wall Street Journal revealed that Telegram is about to raise 1.5 billion dollars, and the price of TON immediately reacted with a +4% in just a few minutes

Investments in Telegram and the TON Ecosystem

The news reported by the Wall Street Journal reveals that Telegram is ready to raise 1.5 billion dollars by issuing bonds. The financing would come from Citadel, along with BlackRock and Mubadala.

The bond issuance will be used to repurchase previous debts, and it will have a duration of 5 years with a yield of 9%

In particular, the proceeds from this financing will be used to repurchase bonds previously issued by Telegram, maturing in March 2026, and a portion of which (400 million dollars) have already been repurchased.

This time, those who purchase the new bonds will also have the right to convert their debt into shares, at a discounted price, should the company decide to go public in the future.

These investments suggest that investors continue to believe in the performance of Telegram

The success of the Telegram app

The year 2023 had ended with an overall loss of 173 million dollars

Telegram is a messaging app launched in 2013, and it has remained substantially in loss for about ten years

The fact is that its founder, Pavel Durov, created it together with his brother after selling his previous creation, the Russian social network VKontakte, earning several hundred million dollars. With those funds, he personally financed the creation and launch of Telegram, and the company subsequently issued debt to continue financing itself, as it was operating at a loss.

The turning point occurred last year, particularly with the launch of advertising on the channels within the app. In fact, 2024 ended with revenues in strong growth (1.4 billion dollars), and above all, finally for the first time in its history, a final profit, even of 540 million dollars.

For 2025, the forecasts are for a revenue of 2 billion dollars with a profit exceeding 700 million dollars

At this point, it is not surprising that giants like Citadel and BlackRock have decided to invest in it

Note that part of the app’s revenue comes from premium subscriptions, but another part comes from advertising and partnerships both linked to the TON ecosystem.

The TON Ecosystem (The Open Network)

TON (The Open Network) is not the blockchain of Telegram, but it clearly has the company behind it

In 2018, in fact, the company attempted to launch an ICO by issuing its own token on Ethereum, but that ICO was blocked by the SEC.

The company at that point decided to officially abandon the Telegram Open Network blockchain project, which was, however, taken up by a group of developers theoretically independent from Telegram. They renamed the project to The Open Network and launched the native cryptocurrency Toncoin.

In reality, behind the TON project, there has always been Telegram, even if indirectly, so it is obvious that the two things are connected.

In fact, as soon as the news of Telegram’s funding by Citadel and BlackRock was published, the price of the TON crypto made a sudden jump in just a few minutes from less than $3 to more than $3.1.

In the following hours, the jump continued, with the price rising even above $3.3

The trend of Toncoin (TON)

Toncoin (TON) landed on the crypto markets four years ago, with a price of about $0.5

At the beginning of 2022, during the full bear-market, its price increased to over $4.4, only to fall back below $1 in the following months.

The difficulties lasted until April 2023, because in the middle of that year a rebound began that continued up to over $2.4.

In the first half of last year, it recorded its largest bullrun, with the price rising up to the all-time high of $8.2

That speculative bubble, however, then burst, bringing the price back under $5, but with Donald Trump’s electoral victory in November 2024, it recorded a rebound that brought it back to almost $7.

During the course of 2025, however, the speculative bubble of 2024 burst completely, with the price dropping to $2.5 by mid-March

Since then, however, it has recorded an initial rebound, which brought it back around $3, followed by a new rebound that started only today. It cannot be ruled out that thanks to these two rebounds it may recover part of what it lost in the first months of the year

The key level seems to be $4, which, however, is still quite far away.