Unocoin Brings Telegram-Backed Toncoin for Purchase, Exchange in India

‘TON’ or The Open Network was first thought of by the Durov brothers, founders of the Telegram messaging app around 2018.

By Radhika Parashar | Updated: 11 July 2022 18:40 IST

Unocoin Brings Telegram-Backed Toncoin for Purchase, Exchange in India

Photo Credit: Facebook/ Unocoin

Earlier in April, the TON foundation, had raised $1 billion in donations

Highlights

Telegram founders had to abandon TON project amid an SEC probe
Other developers carried on work on Toncoin
Toncoin is only listed on Unocoin for exchange in India

Toncoin, the native token of Telegram's fully decentralised layer-1 blockchain ‘TON' has been made available for purchase and exchange on Indian crypto exchange, Unocoin. TON or The Open Network was first thought of by the Durov brothers, founders of the Telegram messaging app around 2018. In 2022, the TON mainnet went fully live and operational and is currently being managed by the TON Foundation. Telegram users can send Toncoin directly within Telegram chats but before that, users are required to add Telegram's Wallet bot to their attachment menu.

TON can be scaled, shared and equipped to adapt to the market requirements, Unocoin claimed in a press release on Monday.

“Toncoin stands from other layer-1 blockchains with various distinctive features and is equipped to fulfil multiple transaction needs. With this inclusion, we look forward to ultra-fast transactions, onboarding more users on the platform,” Sathvik Vishwanth, the co-founder and CEO of Unocoin said in a statement.

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Earlier in April, the TON foundation, had raised $1 billion (roughly Rs. 7,900 crore) in donations to further its development efforts.

Telegram engaged in a lengthy bout with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2019, which forced it to shut down its own cryptocurrency operation, including the native token ‘Gram', in 2020.

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov and his brother Nikolai had developed the project, originally known as the Telegram Open Network (TON).

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After Telegram dropped the TON project, a group of developers continued to work on it. They later renamed it The Open Network and rebranded Gram as Toncoin.

As of now, Unocoin is the only crypto exchange in India to list Toncoin on its platform.

Unocoin's decision to list Toncoin for Indian traders comes after Indian crypto exchanges recorded a nosedive in trading volumes after the one percent TDS rule on each transaction went live on July 1.

The average daily transaction volume on Indian exchanges WazirX, CoinDCX, BitBNS, and Zebpay dipped to $5.6 million (roughly Rs. 44 crore) in the last few days. Up until June, this volume was around $10 million (roughly Rs. 80 crore).

Back in May, Unocoin chief told Gadgets 360 that while the Indian government cannot function as a ‘start-up' and experiment with risky decisions, he did urge the government to align its priorities around crypto, that benefits the sector all together and not just the treasury.

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Further reading: Cryptocurrency, Unocoin, Telegram, Toncoin, Crypto India

Radhika Parashar

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Radhika Parashar is a senior correspondent for Gadgets 360. She has been reporting on tech and telecom for the last three years now and will be focussing on writing about all things crypto. Besides this, she is a major sitcom nerd and often replies in Chandler Bing and Michael Scott references. For tips or queries you could reach out to her at RadhikaP@ndtv.com. More