Pantera Capital Designates TON Investment as Record-Breaking for the Firm
Pantera Capital, a prominent venture firm, has announced a monumental investment in The Open Network (TON), marking it the largest in the firm's history. This significant financing move was disclosed alongside the creation of the fifth venture fund, Pantera Fund V, with plans to raise $1 billion.
The managing partners of Pantera Capital, Dan Morehead, Ryan Barne, and Eric Lou, highlighted TON's vast Telegram user base, its seamless user interface, and its rapidly evolving ecosystem in a recent letter. They believe that TON holds the potential to become one of the most prevalent blockchains in the industry.
"Our focus is dedicated to identifying and nurturing the most promising blockchain ventures and generating profit for both current and future investors. We have supported 240 companies and protocols," the firm stated.
Investors point out that the TON blockchain is engineered for high performance and scalability with rapid transaction processing thanks to its dynamic sharding mechanism. This architecture ensures that the network can handle millions of transactions per second and scale effectively as the user base grows.
The investors also noted that Telegram's audience includes about 930 million active users per month, making it one of the largest global messaging platforms. It embodies the key principles of blockchain technology:
"Essentially, Telegram represents the ideal of cryptography: an open and free network, accessible to all. We believe that TON is still in its early stages of development, and we are excited to witness the adoption of its ecosystem and new features by the Telegram user base."
The company also highlighted the user-friendliness of the TON crypto wallet, which eases the introduction to digital assets and facilitates transactions. They emphasized the growing popularity of games, chatbots, trading tools, and other applications within Telegram. Additionally, TON opens many avenues for the community to monetize and develop their business, according to the release.
While the exact amount of capital raised was not disclosed, it is known that Pantera Capital previously invested more than $250 million in Solana.
In a press release, CEO Dan Morehead shared insights from a recent dinner with Telegram founder Pavel Durov, noting that he was "struck by the purity of his convictions."
Furthermore, the team announced the creation of the fifth venture fund, Pantera Fund V. This new division aims to attract $1 billion in investments in the first quarter of 2025.
In early May 2024, Pantera Capital, which manages assets worth over $5 billion, made a notable investment in The Open Network.
Additionally, it was reported that Tether has added support for the USDT stablecoin on the TON network. In celebration of this event, the TON Foundation announced the launch of an 11 million USDT incentive program.