The TON Foundation, the organization behind the development of The Open Network (TON), has appointed MoonPay co-founder Maximilian Crown as its new CEO.
The entrepreneur played a significant role in advancing finance and operations, according to the non-profit organization. His expertise is expected to help TON Foundation expand its market influence.
The leadership changes come amid a slowdown in the ecosystem’s growth in terms of daily fees and transactions, according to TonStat data. Last year, blockchain activity surged significantly due to popular Telegram applications like Notcoin and Hamster Kombat.
In January, Manuel Stotz, founder of Kingsway Capital, became the president of the TON Foundation board.
“With Crown’s appointment, TON Foundation gains an experienced leader who knows how to grow large fintech operations,” noted Stotz.
In the same month, the non-profit organization and Telegram announced an exclusive agreement requiring embedded Web3 applications to use TON exclusively.
According to the company’s blog, the number of active accounts on the platform has increased from 4 million to 41 million over the past few years, and the number of addresses has exceeded 150 million. During this time, the number of Toncoin holders surpassed the number of wallets holding Bitcoin, and “TON applications have become some of the most popular in the cryptocurrency world.”
The goal of TON Foundation is to attract 30% of Telegram’s active users to the blockchain by 2028. The focus will be on launching multiplayer games, creating user-friendly DeFi solutions, and implementing real cryptocurrency payments.
Earlier, on April 10, the president of the non-profit organization stated that integrating payments, messaging, and online identification into Telegram could transform the messenger into a globally accessible super app for the digital economy.
TON developers presented the project’s roadmap for the first half of 2025.