Crypto has a new unicorn. The open platform, one of the main blockchain’s application developers chosen by the Telegram messaging application, announced on Thursday that it had collected a series A of $ 28.5 million to an evaluation of $ 1 billion.
The specialist in Fintech Ribbit Capital led the Round, with the participation of the Crypto VC Pantera Capital. The increase was for around 5% of equity and did not include cryptocurrency allowances, said the founder and CEO of the open platform, Andrew Rogozov Fortune. The open platform, which also refers to TOP, has collected a total of more than $ 70 million on several financing cycles, he added.
TOP is one of the main companies working on applications for blockchain called the open network, or tone. And this blockchain is closely associated with Telegram, one of the most popular messaging applications in the world. It is a complicated meli-melo of entities, but the result is that TOP helps to direct the integration of crypto into an application that has more than a billion users, according to the founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov.
This scope has salivating VCs. Ribbit Capital and Pantera investors stressed that the large Telegram user base in the statements included in a press release from the TOP recovery. “The opportunity to support revolutionary technological and financial products that reach a billion people is inspiring,” said Ryan Barney, Pantera partner.
And they are not the only ones to be excited. In March, the Tone Foundation, another entity linked to the blockchain, said that VCS like Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Ventures, Draper Associates and, of course, Ribbit had accumulated $ 400 million in Ton cryptocurrency.
Telegram wallet
Like the meli-melo of the entities involved in the blockchain chosen by Telegram, the origins of Top, Ton and Toncoin are far from simple.
In 2018, Durov raised $ 1.7 billion after he and Telegram sold a cryptocurrency to support the development of a blockchain called Telegram Open Network or Ton. In 2019, the Commission for Securities and Exchange filed an intervention to stop what it alleged was an offer of illegal titles and, in 2020, the regulator and the telegram arrived at a regulation. The messaging application has agreed to return more than $ 1.2 billion to investors and pay a fine of $ 18.5 million.
While Telegram seemed to be distant from the crypto, other developers continued to work on the technology thrown behind the scenes, including Rogozov.
And in 2023, Telegram has a new version of Ton as an exclusive choice of choice. The same year, Rogozov incorporated Top, according to a business register of Abu Dhabi, where the company was based.
TOP is the main developer behind the most important cryptographic portfolio of tone, rightly called Wallet in Telegram. Outside the United States and Europe, Telegram, the application, has joined the portfolio in its main menu and is available for users of Russia, Asia and other geographies.
Rogozov plans to use the new capital injection to extend the portfolio to the United States and Europe. “We have to support everything about compliance, operations and stuff, right?” He said. “It’s very expensive to build.”
He and his team also plan to use money to incubate other tons -based projects, including blockchain games and AI applications.
In series A series, Ribbit acquired around 4% of the company and Pantera reported about 1%, said Rogozov. The company’s first landlords are the investment company of Dubai Vy Capital and Dmitry Ereeev, an investor born in Russia. Kingsway Capital and Kevin Hu of Brevan Howard are also donors, according to the Abu Dhabi business register.
Clarification, July 3, 2025: Updated article to clarify that Kevin Hu, Pas Brevan Howard, is in the lead.
