Telegram has reached 900 million users, and the price of Toncoin (TON) has surged to above $4.26

According to CryptoPotato, the number of Telegram users reached 9 billion this week, and founder Pavel Durov is considering an initial public offering (IPO). This may be the reason for the surge in Toncoin (TON) prices to over $4.26 earlier on Monday and Tuesday. According to CoinGecko data, TON surged by about 38% earlier on Tuesday, reaching a high of $4.45 before slightly falling back. The last time TON was priced above $4 was in November 2021 during the peak of the cryptocurrency bull market. Over the past 30 days, TON's price has seen significant fluctuations after years of being largely overlooked in the crypto space. The development and announcements from Telegram always have a significant impact on TON's price. As reported by CryptoPotato, two weeks ago Telegram announced that it would pay channel owners 50% of ad revenue through the TON blockchain, leading to a 25% surge in TON's value. TON is the native cryptocurrency of The Open Network, a decentralized blockchain developed by Telegram. Originally known as Telegram Open Network, regulatory issues with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission led to a split between the project and its founders in 2020. The community supporting TON decided to continue advancing the project and transitioned it into a first-layer proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus model network. Since then, Telegram has integrated this network providing users with self-custody encrypted wallets based on TON within their platform for closer integration with users. Additionally, Durov stated in his first interview since 2017 published by Financial Times: "Overall we believe [IPO] as a means for democratizing access to value created by Telegram holds merit," adding that he expects Telegram will go public later this year or next year.