Author: Nancy, PANews

After many years of ups and downs and several twists and turns, TON has now entered the top ten in cryptocurrency market value. Its user base, capital scale, and token price surge have made it one of the more robust cryptocurrency projects in this round of bull market development.

The transformation of TON into a "dark horse" cannot be separated from the keen eye of the "horse breeder". According to CoinCarp data, TON has completed seven rounds of financing to date, but only publicly disclosed two rounds of $16 million investments, with the remaining five rounds not disclosing more information. Among the investment institutions, participating institutions include Runa Capital, RTP Global, DWF Labs, Mask Network, Mexc Ventures, Animoca Brands, Mirana Ventures, and Pantera Capital, among others. Compared to other public chain projects, TON has more Web2 participating institutions and relatively fewer top crypto VCs. In terms of the announced financing time, TON, established in 2018, received its earliest investment in 2021, and the most rounds of financing in a year was in 2023, with a total of 3 rounds of financing.

This article from PANews lists the financing scale, investment cost, and return on investment of 10 disclosed TON investment institutions. The investment scale of these VCs ranges from hundreds of millions to billions of dollars, with the lowest cost of establishing a position being less than $0.78 and the highest return rate exceeding 14 times.

Runa Capital and RTP Global

Runa Capital is a technology-focused venture capital firm valued at $270 million, focusing on investments in financial technology, education, digital healthcare, etc., with its investment or incubated company assets exceeding $10 billion. TON is the only blockchain company to directly receive funding from Runa Capital since its establishment. RTP Global, which focuses on early-stage technology companies, was one of the first companies to provide financial and expert support to major European technology companies such as Yandex and Delivery Hero, with a portfolio of 183 companies, including 15 unicorn companies.

In April 2021, TON announced a $6 million seed round of financing, led by RTP Global and Runa Capital. According to Alexander Filatov, co-founder of TON Labs, this financing was completed in 2022, which also means that the investment of these two institutions was below the $0.78 upper limit price in August 2021, with an investment return rate of over 9.9 times.

Pantera Capital

In May 2024, the cryptocurrency venture capital firm Pantera Capital, managing over $5 billion in assets, announced its investment in TON, the largest investment in the history of the fund. They stated, "We believe TON has the ability to promote cryptocurrencies to the public because it has been widely used in the Telegram network," and further explained the reasons for heavily investing in TON. Although Pantera Capital did not disclose the specific amount or the discounted purchase price, based on the previous disclosure of purchasing discounted SOL tokens worth up to $250 million from FTX Estate, the institution's investment in TON is likely to exceed this amount.

In late June, Pantera Capital sent an email to potential investors, indicating that the institution is raising a new fund to purchase more TON tokens, with a minimum investment of $250,000 per supporter. According to previous disclosures by Pantera Capital, Pantera Fund V will be first raised in the first quarter of 2025, with a target of $1 billion.

Kingsway Capital

Kingsway Capital's founder and CEO, Manuel Stotz, is a board member of the TON Foundation. The Block reported that Kingsway Capital's largest token holding to date is also TON, which they have been purchasing for over two years. Based on the price trend of TON between July 2021 and July 2022, Kingsway Capital's cost of establishing a position did not exceed $4.5 and was as low as $0.55. According to CoinGecko data, as of July 1, the price of TON was $7.71, resulting in a return rate of 1.7 to 14 times for Kingsway Capital.

Ryze Labs

Established in 2015, Ryze Labs, formerly known as Sino Global Capital, has a portfolio including Solana, LayerZero, Polygon, and Wintermute, among others. Ryze Labs launched a $200 million fund in 2021, with bankrupt FTX as its main investor. Ian Wittkopp, head of the TON Foundation, was formerly the COO and investment director of Sino Global Capital.

In a report by The Block, Matthew Graham, co-founder and managing partner of Ryze Labs, revealed that Ryze has always been a "big buyer" of TON tokens.

Animoca Brands

In November 2023, Animoca Brands announced a strategic investment in the TON ecosystem and became the largest validator of the TON blockchain, providing funding, research, and analysis platforms for third-party TON ecosystem mini-applications.

Yat Siu, co-founder and chairman of Animoca Brands, revealed in an interview with The Block that the company started purchasing TON tokens when the price was below $1, and then continued to purchase at $1, $1.5, and $2. Based on the price trend from CoinGecko, excluding early participation, Animoca Brands' return rate is between 3.85 and 7.7 times between March 2022 and December 2022, and between May 2023 and September 2023.

Mirana Ventures

In March 2024, Mirana Ventures announced a new long-term partnership with TON, including an $8 million purchase of TON in the secondary market. At that time, the price of TON was below $2.7, resulting in a return rate of over 2.8 times as of July 1, 2024.

DWF Labs

In November 2022, DWF Labs announced a commitment of $10 million to support the TON ecosystem, planning a total of 50 seed investments within the next 12 months. According to CoinGecko prices, the price of TON between November 2022 and November 2023 was between $1.68 and $2.54, resulting in a return rate of over 3 to 4.5 times based on the current price (July 1). This year, TON also announced a partnership with DWF Labs and is seeking project partners and investors to develop games and SocialFi mini-applications on the TON blockchain.

Mask Network

In May 2023, Mask Network announced its investment in TON, but did not disclose the amount. Based on the price at the time, around $2, Mask Network's return rate exceeded 3.8 times. In the staking plan launched this year, Mask Network also includes TON tokens as rewards.

Mexc Ventures

In October 2023, Mexc Ventures announced a seven-figure investment in TON, but did not disclose the specific amount. Based on the market price of $2 at the time, Mexc Ventures' return rate was approximately 3.8 times.

It is worth noting that in the cryptocurrency field, VCs often have a certain lock-up period and adopt linear unlocking, rather than selling off all at once.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that TON previously raised $1.7 billion through multiple ICOs, with prices ranging from $0.37 to $1.33. A list submitted to the New York court by the SEC showed that investors included Russian oil billionaire Roman Abramovich's Norma Investments Limited fund investing $10 million, Russian billionaire Mikhail Gutseriev and his family's investment department Larnabel Ventures investing $15 million, former Russian cabinet minister Abyzov's fund Batios Holdings Limited, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' widow Laurene Powell Jobs, and Sergey Solonin, co-founder of the Russian payment giant Qiwi, among others.

However, due to the SEC lawsuit, TON announced in 2020 that the launch of its mainnet was postponed to April 2022. If investors disagreed, Telegram would return 72% of the investment, or investors could lend the investment to Telegram as a loan and receive 110% of their original investment by April 30, 2021. If investors chose to retain their investment, the current return rate would be nearly 5.8 to 20.8 times.

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