Telegram’s Blockchain Developer Soars to $1B Unicorn Status – Here’s Why It Matters

Move over, traditional finance—Telegram’s blockchain arm just joined the billion-dollar club. The messaging giant’s crypto division hit a $1B valuation, proving once again that decentralized tech eats Wall Street’s lunch.

Why the hype? Because when a messaging app’s side project outpaces legacy banks in value creation, someone’s doing something right (or the system’s utterly broken).

Active users? Check. Developer traction? Obviously. Another crypto unicorn born from sheer defiance of the 'blockchain is dead' narrative? Absolutely. Meanwhile, your bank still charges $35 for overdrafts.

This isn’t just a win for Telegram—it’s a middle finger to every suit who said 'mainstream adoption' was a pipe dream. The revolution won’t be televised; it’ll be encrypted.

The TON ecosystem’s silent growth engine

The Open Platform’s $28.5 million raise can be seen as a strategic MOVE to scale an ecosystem that has quietly become one of crypto’s most effective onboarding tools.

Unlike most popular blockchains that rely on speculative trades and DeFi yields to retain users, TON’s growth has been driven by something simpler: Telegram’s chat interface. TOP’s flagship product, the Telegram Wallet, eliminated the friction of seed phrases and external apps, allowing users to send Toncoin (TON) as easily as a message.

Since going live in 2021, The Open Network has seen over 15 million wallets created through Telegram, with viral hits like Notcoin and Hamster Kombat bringing in millions of first-time crypto users.

With a unicorn status and fresh capital injection, The Open Platform wants to double down on embedding blockchain more deeply within everyday mobile experiences.

The developer said a significant portion of the funding will support expansion into markets where crypto integration often hits a wall, not due to lack of users, but because of outdated rules, fragmented enforcement, and tech Stacks not built for mobile-native crypto engagement.

TOP now finds itself in a rare position: already embedded within a messaging app that reaches nearly a billion users, and now capitalized to build the compliance stack to match. Whether that’s enough to deliver on its stated goal of “onboarding a billion users into crypto” remains to be seen.