Users on Telegram will be able to buy in-platform ads with budgets beginning at 'a few Toncoins,' promoting bots and channels. Advertisers can choose specific channels for their ads. Owners of channels with 1,000+ subscribers will earn 50% of ad revenue.
The launch of Toncoin payments for in-platform ads follows the announcement earlier in 2024 of Telegram's ad revenue sharing programme, in which revenue is distributed to channel owners in the cryptocurrency. Withdrawals for channel owners will become available in the near future through Telegram's Fragment exchange.
TON originally stood for Telegram Open Network, with Telegram engineers working on the TON blockchain platform and the Gram cryptocurrency built atop it. However, the company abandoned its plans for the network following a protracted dispute with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which alleged that the USD 1.7 billion ICO for Grams constituted an illegal securities offering.
After Telegram withdrew from the project and refunded investors from the token sale, a non-commercial group of community developers continued the open-source project, renaming it to The Open Network and launching Toncoin as its native currency. The TON blockchain has subsequently been used to underpin projects like game and meme coin Notcoin.
The messaging app explained that it had opted to use Toncoin for in-platform ad payments because of its low fees, and high transaction speeds.
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