Toncoin (TON) slumped Monday morning, falling 5% to $2.79 in the past 24 hours, after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) shot down claims that staking the cryptocurrency could be used to acquire the country's "Golden Visa."
On Sunday, TON Foundation CEO Max Crown tweeted that staking $100,000 worth of Toncoin for three years and paying a one-time processing fee of $35,000 could help users acquire the visa. Reports on the claims were reshared by billionaire Telegram founder Pavel Durov to his 2.6 million followers.
TON shot up to $3 in the immediate aftermath of the Ton Foundation’s announcement, its highest level since June 20, per CoinGecko data, before plunging Monday morning.
Alexandr Kerya, VP of product management at exchange CEX.IO, told Decrypt that the way the announcement was made raised “immediate concerns,” explaining that, “A single tweet simply doesn’t meet the standards expected for news of such scale, and can’t be taken seriously.”
“Public-private partnerships—especially those involving national governments and emerging technologies like blockchain—require careful and clear communication,” Kerya added, noting that this type of news “should be shared through official channels by both parties, ensuring credibility, transparency, and trust.”
Kerya said that future efforts to integrate crypto technologies into national systems should be built on “solid ground.”
Thomas Felber, crypto product director at trading platform Tradu, claimed that the recent incident “isn’t an isolated case,” pointing to alleged issues within the TON ecosystem including “whale wallet concentration” and criticism of Telegram-based game Notcoin for “encouraging short-term engagement over deeper use cases.”
The UAE’s Golden Visa program
The Golden Visa allows holders to live and work in the UAE, which includes crypto hub Dubai, for up to ten years, and even bring family members. Under regular circumstances, requirements for the visa can be onerous, including making real estate investments of over $500,000.
On Monday, the UAE’s Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security (ICP), the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), and the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) issued a joint statement "denying reports circulating on certain websites and social media platforms that claim the UAE grants golden visas to investors in digital currencies."
The authorities added that the company TON "is neither licensed nor regulated by VARA” and "urged the public and investors to exercise caution and refer to official government websites" for accurate information.
Well-known crypto figures beat the UAE's regulators to the punch in urging caution on the scheme.
Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao told his followers he likes to "trust but verify," adding that he'd "expect something like this to have a government partnership, and an announcement."
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