Toncoin Soars Amid Telegram Musk xAI Deal, $1.5 Billion Bond Sale Report – Decrypt

The Open Community’s Toncoin was up almost 12% on Wednesday amid a report that its affiliated messaging platform Telegram is reportedly eyeing a $1.5 billion increase and an announcement that the agency had struck a $300 million cope with Elon Musk’s xAI.

The native token of the Telegram-affiliated The Open Community, the 18th largest crypto by market worth, was buying and selling at $3.37, CoinGecko information exhibits. TON soared to virtually $3.70 and was up about 90% at one level earlier within the morning. 

Telegram’s fortunes, which have risen in current months, continued to swing upward on Wednesday. The corporate is getting ready to lift $1.5 billion in a corporate-bond sale, The Wall Avenue Journal reported Wednesday, citing a number of sources aware of the corporate’s plans. 

The messaging platform will subject five-year bonds providing a 9% yield—a increase that has invited curiosity from Emirati-owned funding agency Mubadala, BlackRock, and hedge-fund supervisor Citadel, in keeping with The Journal. 

Telegram has shared with buyers that it clocked $540 million in income on $1.4 billion in income in 2024, individuals aware of the matter advised the publication—a serious rebound from its lackluster efficiency the yr prior. The app boasted one billion energetic customers as of March 2025, in keeping with Telegram’s executives, and enrollment in its subscription companies has roughly doubled over the previous yr or so. 

Individually, Telegram will deploy AI-powered chatbot Grok to its rising platform beneath phrases of a one-year settlement with xAI, Telegram founder Pavel Durov stated Wednesday in a social media submit. Telegram will obtain half of xAI’s subscription gross sales made via the messaging platform, Durov tweeted. 

Durov remains to be going through legal fees in France associated to alleged unlawful actions hosted on Telegram, leaving the appliance’s future considerably unsure. 

French authorities arrested Durov in August, alleging Telegram facilitated terrorism and drug trafficking enterprises, amongst different nefarious actions, on its platform. And earlier this month, authorities declined the founder’s enchantment to journey to the U.S. for “negotiations with funding funds,” POLITICO reported. 

Telegram created TON in 2018, however distanced itself from the community simply two years later because it confronted regulatory scrutiny over its function within the undertaking. Nevertheless, the messaging utility started flirting with TON almost two years later, internet hosting the TON Pockets App and tap-to-earn video games in its utility.  

The latter initiative helped TON garner widespread recognition final yr, as viral tap-to-earn video games reminiscent of Catizen and Hamster Kombat‌ amassed lots of of tens of millions of gamers on Telegram. 

Edited by James Rubin