The Open Network (TON), a layer-1 blockchain formerly developed by Telegram, announced on May 22 the launch of a $25 million fund for projects constructed on its ecosystem.
The initiative, known as the “TON Accelerator Program,” will invest between $50,000 and $250,000 per project and will be accompanied by partnerships and mentorships from TON’s staff.
The TON Foundation’s head of incubation and growth, Justin Hyun, stated:
“Funding forms part of our local hubs rollout strategy and our ecosystem will work to attract new developers as well as successful repeat founders, based across a variety of key global locations.”
The initial pool of funding recipients would be projects that participated in a recent TON hackathon, emphasizing incubating decentralized finance (DeFi) projects.
In addition to being constructed on TON, projects are required to have a minimum viable product (MVP), as well as direct support in the areas of marketing, business, and technology.
“Proof-of-concept or prototype teams that require greater technical support should apply for earlier-stage grants,” the developers of The Open Network stipulated.
Since 2020, the The Open Network project has been run entirely by its user community as an open-source endeavor.
According to the reports, its architecture makes significant scalability possible, as well as the processing of millions of transactions per second.
In April, The Open Network secured a commitment of $250 million from major corporations for its ecosystem, the TONcoin Fund.
Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Republic of the Congo announced their intention to adopt the TON blockchain during its launch.