Telegram-linked blockchain project, The Open Network (TON), is set to focus on growth in the United States under the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump.
The US is set to become a key market for TON under Trump’s administration, a spokesperson for the TON Foundation confirmed to Cointelegraph on Jan. 14.
The US push will be led by newly appointed TON Foundation president and board member Manuel Stotz.
“The US ranks as one of the world’s largest financial centers, and we see enormous potential for it to develop into a crypto hub that will promote and support the retail adoption of digital assets,” Stotz told Cointelegraph.
Stotz is a major digital asset investor
Stotz has been serving at the TON Foundation since its official inception in Switzerland in 2023. In his new role at the TON Foundation, he will replace Steve Yun, who remains on the board.
Stotz is a major investor in the digital asset industry and is the founder of the investment management company Kingsway Capital Partners. The firm has backed more than 50 industry projects, including Animoca Brands, Blockchain.com, CoinDCX, Toncoin, Genesis Digital Assets and others.
Kingsway Capital founder Manuel “Manny” Stotz (right) at the OMR podcast. Source: OMR
“I look forward to working with our partners and stakeholders to accelerate this mission — especially in the dynamic and innovative US market,” Stotz said in a blog post on Jan. 14.
TON’s long-time path to the US
With the TON Foundation anticipating to make significant steps forward in the US in the coming months, the move marks a crucial development in the history of TON.
Once known as “Telegram Open Network,” TON was originally introduced by Telegram co-founders Pavel and Nikolai Durov, who raised $1.7 billion for the TON network and the original Gram token in 2018.
Telegram was forced to terminate its involvement in the TON project in May 2020 and subsequently shut down the TON testnet after losing a multi-year legal battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission over TON and Gram.
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As TON is an open-source project, with its entire code published on GitHub, Telegram’s TON exit marked a new era in the TON development, with independent developers and communities starting to build their own networks based on TON.
One such project was the TON Foundation, which was officially established in Switzerland in 2023 as a nonprofit organization funded entirely by community contributions.
While Telegram formally distanced itself from the TON Foundation, TON and the Toncoin (TON) cryptocurrency gradually became an integral part of the messenger. Telegram CEO Durov also repeatedly committed to the TON blockchain, with Telegram featuring a wide number of TON and Toncoin implementations, including default support on Telegram’s third-party crypto wallet.
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