The Open Platform, a developer of tools for encrypted-messaging app Telegram Messenger Inc.’s blockchain ecosystem, announced today it raised $28.5 million in an early-stage funding round, bringing its valuation to $1 billion.

The Series A round was led by Rabbit Capital with participation from Pantera Capital.

TOP is the main player in the development of applications for The Open Network, a blockchain closely related to Telegram. Telegram is one of the world’s largest messaging platforms. The network was cited as exceeding 1 billion monthly active users in March, according to the website Sinch, showing it has been steadily increasing since 2022, when it had 700 million active monthly users.

The Open Platform primarily builds core infrastructure and consumer-facing apps on TON, which is Telegram’s official blockchain, with the intent to scale crypto adoption on a global scale.

TON has a rocky history. In 2018, Telegram raised $1.7 billion through selling cryptocurrency to support the development of TON, which attracted the attention of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In 2019, the SEC sued Telegram, alleging the raise was an illegal securities offering. In 2020, Telegram and the SEC reached a settlement resulting in an $18.5 million fine and the company to return some of the money raised in the token offering.

Despite these setbacks, Telegram selected a new version of TON in 2023 as its exclusive blockchain partner and TOP became its main developer. The company is now the developer of the blockchain’s main crypto wallet, Wallet in Telegram, which is where users can buy, sell and trade Toncoin. It is integrated directly into the main menu of the Telegram app outside of the United States and Europe, making it available to users in regions such as Russia and Asia.

Other products made by TOP include decentralized exchanges where users can buy, sell and trade crypto, nonfungible token marketplaces and blockchain games.

“By combining TON blockchain with Telegram’s global reach, we’re building both the infrastructure and the consumer-facing apps needed to onboard a billion users to crypto,” said The Open Platform Chief Executive Andrew Rogozov.

Rogozov said the company’s long-term strategy will be to support the firm’s wallet expansion efforts in the U.S., the EU and other regions, with a focus on regulatory licensing, compliance and infrastructure development. The company would also incubate other TON-related projects, including blockchain games and artificial intelligence applications.

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