Key trends in TON: technology, finance, and strategy
Is the market tired of the "Durov case"?
The media persona of TON founder Pavel Durov inevitably has a significant impact on the ecosystem and its perception by market participants. As a result, key Toncoin news always includes events surrounding Durov.
For example, Durov's arrest in France in August 2024 led to a sharp drop in the Toncoin price — from $ 6.70 to $5.11 in just one day. Conversely, positive news for the Telegram founder triggered equally strong reactions: upon the announcement that Durov had his passport returned, Toncoin surged by 20%.
However, the latest (as of June 19, 2025) news — that Durov is now allowed to leave France and travel to Dubai, where Telegram's offices are located — was ignored by the market, with no noticeable price movement. This suggests that the "Durov case" has ceased to be a significant factor for market players.
New faces at TON Foundation
In recent months, the TON Foundation has continued its strategy of appointing high-profile figures from the banking and payments sectors to key leadership positions.
On April 24, Maximilian Crown became the CEO of the TON Foundation. He is widely known as the co-founder of MoonPay, the largest provider of cryptocurrency payment infrastructure. At MoonPay, Crown also served as CFO and COO, overseeing relationships with banks and regulators.
At the end of May, it was announced that Nikola Plecas had been appointed the new Vice President of Payments at the TON Foundation. He previously held a leadership role at Visa, where he was responsible for developing the company's cryptocurrency strategy. At the TON Foundation, he will focus on building out the payments infrastructure, which is experiencing rapidly growing demand in line with the blockchain's increasing popularity.
These appointments indicate a shift in priorities for the TON Foundation — the organization is now entirely focused on gaining market share and building relationships with key players in the financial industry.
Telegram's debt to be tokenized on the TON blockchain
Tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) remains the most promising segment of the crypto market. The TON ecosystem is currently among the leaders in hosting tokenized assets, but the recently announced plans to tokenize Telegram's debt represent a significant leap forward in the RWA space.
Libre — known for tokenizing funds from BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and other prominent investment firms — has announced plans to tokenize $500 million worth of Telegram's debt. To do this, a Telegram Bond Fund (TBF) will be launched on the TON blockchain.
Token holders will have rights to fixed payments based on Telegram's debt obligations and will also be able to use the tokens as collateral or in other financial operations.
TBF will also become Libre's largest tokenization project. Despite working with major investment corporations and being a leader in RWA tokenization, Libre's current tokenized asset volume is approximately $200 million.
New stablecoins on the TON blockchain
USDT0 — the unified liquidity network for Tether's stablecoin — has announced the release of a gold-backed omnichain stablecoin, XAUt0. The token will be explicitly launched on the TON blockchain.
XAUt0 follows the Omnichain Fungible Token (OFT) standard from LayerZero, which enables cross-chain transactions without the need for intermediary blockchains or the now-standard "wrapping" process.
At present, XAUt — the "regular" version of the token without omnichain features — is the largest gold-backed stablecoin on the market, with a market cap exceeding $832 million.
Additionally, in May 2025, the TON ecosystem integrated the fourth-largest dollar stablecoin by market cap — Ethena (USDe), alongside the main version, which has a capitalization of over $4 billion; a staking version has also been deployed on the TON blockchain. It carries the ticker tsUSDe.
Toncoin price today
The Toncoin cryptocurrency has yet to demonstrate a sustained upward trend or recover to its early-year levels (around $ 5.50). For nearly three months — since April 7, 2025 — Toncoin has been trading around the $3 mark, fluctuating between $2.78 and $3.51. At the time of writing, the price stands at $2.89.
Neither fundamental Toncoin news about new features and asset additions to the ecosystem nor events related to the "Durov case" have been able to move the coin out of this flat trend. Therefore, it seems the price will likely remain around $3 for the coming weeks.