According to U.Today, Toncoin (TON), the core cryptocurrency of Telegram messenger, experienced a sudden drop in value, losing 12.5% in less than 30 minutes. This occurred shortly after Telegram founder Pavel Durov's speech at TOKEN2049 in Dubai. The altcoin, which had been on a seven-week rally, fell from $7.2 to $6.3 on major spot exchanges. This drop resulted in a $1.14 million loss in TON/USDT long positions on futures trading platforms. Despite this, TON's price had increased by 141% since the start of its rally in late February.
In his speech, Durov announced plans to reintroduce Telegram stickers and emojis and NFTs, and enable a tip-sending feature, all on top of the TON blockchain. Additionally, Paolo Ardoino of Tether announced the release of U.S. Dollar Tether (USDT), the world's largest stablecoin, on TON rails. The initial capitalization for USDT on TON is set at $10,000,000, which is less than 0.01% of Tether's aggregated USDT market cap, currently nearing a record $110 billion.
In addition to the USDT debut, the Tether Transparency page indicates plans to release XAUT, EURT, CNHT, and MXNT stablecoins on TON. Despite these major announcements, the drop in TON's value suggests a 'buy the rumor - sell the news' event.
