The Open Network (TON), a layer-1 blockchain, has today announced a $25 million accelerator program. This year, the program will allocate up to $25 million to projects that have the potential to have significant impact on the growth of the TON Ecosystem.
According to the community, a TON-based fund will provide the funding, which will be invested in various kinds of important projects, with a special emphasis on decentralized finance (DeFi). Each project will receive between $50,000 and $250,000.
Justin Hyun, Head of Incubation and Growth at TON Foundation, stated that the program is excited to announce the TON Accelerator Program as it continues to expand and attract new talent.
“This is the beginning of many different incubators which will be supported in the future. 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 first round of funding will be focused on projects that participated in Hack-a-TONx DoraHacks, a two-month-long virtual hackathon hosted in conjunction with DoraHacks.
Bill Qian, chairman of Cypher Capital, commented that the program is unique “within the Web3 universe today” He also explained how the Web2 ecosystem is a well-known incubator premise that is being refined and evolved through the TON Accelerator Program by embracing the best practices of Web3 protocols and processes.
The TON community also encouraged Proof-of-concept or prototype teams to apply for funds at an earlier stage.
The $25 million allocation represents significant progress from the TON Network to support the growth of innovative projects. With this huge funding, the accelerator program seeks to not only provide financial backing but also offer invaluable mentorship and guidance to selected projects.