Potential Crypto venture capital giant Pantera Capital has made a new investment in The Open Network (TON), the blockchain protocol recently integrated with the popular Telegram messaging app.

Pantera is highly bullish on the vast opportunities this Telegram-TON integration could unlock, calling it "potential to become one of the largest crypto networks."

900 Million User Opportunity With over 900 million monthly active users, Telegram has a massive existing user base that Pantera believes is "well positioned to bring crypto to the world" aligning with Web3's ethos.

The VC firm highlighted how Telegram's mini-apps have already enabled tens of millions in revenue from crypto tools like memecoin trading bots. TON can now facilitate much more sophisticated decentralized applications and financial products built atop this ubiquitous messaging platform.

Technical and Monetization Advantages Beyond the sheer user scale, Pantera touted TON's robust technical architecture providing performance and scalability metrics comparable to leading blockchains.

The firm also pointed to new monetization models Telegram is exploring like ad revenue sharing, selling premium usernames/numbers, and digital goods - all of which could leverage TON's crypto-economic capabilities.

First Major Messaging Web3 Integration Notably, Pantera emphasized that Telegram's TON integration makes it the only major messaging platform to successfully incorporate blockchain-based Web3 technology so far.

Previous attempts by competitors like Meta's failed Libra project and China's limited scope for WeChat's digital yuan integration pale in comparison according to Pantera's assessment.

TON's initial intention was always to serve as Telegram's base layer before being halted by the SEC in 2020. Its community-led relaunch opened the door for this reunion transforming Telegram into a Web3-enabled communications behemoth overnight.

Pantera Optimistic on Vast Potential With over $5 billion in crypto assets under management, Pantera is among the most respected and influential VC investors in the space.

Their enthusiastic backing of TON underscores the tremendous potential they see in combining the scale of a platform like Telegram with blockchain-based applications, assets and monetization models powered by TON.

If successful, the Telegram-TON combination could go a long way in onboarding billions to Web3 through intuitive crypto-communication tools operating at a unprecedented scale relative to today's isolated blockchain ecosystems.